NorthStar launched this indestructible all-in-one system in 1982.
Despite some interesting features - High resolution graphics display, 8 and 16-bit software compatibility - and a proven reliability, the Advantage never really competed with Apple and IBM-PC systems
Kentucky Fried Computer (KFC) was the original name of the company in their garage building stage, and was quickly changed to NorthStar when they found commercial potential.
One great feature of the Advantage was that it had an IBM Selectric (as in typewriters) keyboard. Very high quality, and familiar to typists. There was a 16 bit add-in card that ran generic MSDOS 1. The display allowed to run graphic games like Asteroid, and could display foreign character sets. Many were sold outside the US.
It also had networking cards, called NorthNet (I don't remember the protocol) to link many Advantages together, when this was just a dream for IBM.
As you said, it came out about the time of the IBM PC, which pretty much killed it, mostly because people didn't understand the technology.
The hard sectored drives were notorious for getting out of alignment. I think that is what really killed the system (PC-DOS and IBM didn't help)
I was working for GBC at the time and we re-badged the product line (Advantage = System 9 and Horizon = System 12).
Hard disks were available with 5, 10 and 30 Mb runnig MFM.
主要参数编辑本段回目录
 |  |
| NAME | Advantage |
| MANUFACTURER | Northstar |
| TYPE | Professional Computer |
| ORIGIN | U.S.A. |
| YEAR | 1982 |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE | None |
| KEYBOARD | Full-stroke 79 keys with function keys and numeric keypad |
| CPU | Z80 or 8088 |
| SPEED | 3.5 Mhz. (Z80) |
| CO-PROCESSOR | 8084 for display and disk management |
| RAM | 64 KB expandable to 256 KB |
| VRAM | 32 KB - 20 KB actually used - Extra 12 KB was reserved for |
| ROM | 2 KB (Boot ROM) |
| TEXT MODES | 40/80 chars x 25 lines |
| GRAPHIC MODES | 640 x 240 dots |
| COLORS | Monochrome |
| SOUND | Beeper |
| I/O PORTS | Serial and Parallel ports (expansion cards) |
| BUILT IN MEDIA | 1/2 x 5.25 F.D. drives, 5 to 20 MB hard-disk |
| OS | CP/M, NDOS |
| POWER SUPPLY | Built-in power supply |
| PERIPHERALS | Proprietary extension cards |
| PRICE | $3990 |
参考文献编辑本段回目录
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/northstar-horizon/page_01.htm
