This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Xerox  820-II computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

Again, not a "bad" computer per se, but much better was out there in 1983. 8" floppies where already sliding into obsolescence. Some of the same great software was becoming available for the new IBM PC and PC/XT and the new Apple //e had some great productivity software coming soon. This was a case of too little improvement coming too late. A Kaypro 10 was a better deal that was at least as good, or better, at a lower price and excellent build quality. Xerox leadership was caught in the 1970''s or something.

ok boomer

Nice to see my original post at bottom of page after all these years, I still have that old computer, thanks to all who run and contribute to this site.

Keep in mind that this low quality system was produced at the same time that GUI system: Apple Macintosh and Xerox Star were being sold...

Oh well, having done even more research...

Apple Lisa and Macintosh teams at Apple Computer included former members of the Xerox developers.

Xerox did try to sell the Xerox Star, which has similar MacIntosh features, however:

Xerox Star Cost: $16,000 - $24,000
Apple Macintosh: $2,495

Which one can you afford?

See my comment on: X XEROX 820

Unlike the 820, this thing was almost a bearable over priced piece of 1982 space junk.

Please look up Xerox Alto on Google.

From a technical perspective, the 1973 Xerox Alto can be considered the first Macintosh, since Steve Jobs copied it when he made the first Apple Lisa.

Even when Apple computer stole the Alto, Xerox could have resumed research and blown them out of the water with a new Alto before the Apple Mac started.

Instead they they played it safe, and mimicked/copied the CP/M and IBM platforms.

"Bad move, Space Cuuuu-dit." - Gorf

My aunt was a VP for Xerox in the St. Louis, MO area in the late 70s and early 80s. We had the privilege of acquiring the Xerox 820-II computer with the Diablo 630 Daisywheel Printer and I have the whole set in good working condition with numerous floppy disks for accounting and computing! Our family was one of the "home test pilot program families'' for the Xerox 820-II. I have all the original manuals, cords and everything.

Miles Attacca (USA): Swap pins 2 and 3 on the rs232 cable. Terminal mode will work fine. If needed you can adjust the speed of the port (I think "B" is the command? You can hit the help key for the basic functions list). I used mine as a terminal and also to move files between machines often. $arun

The 820-II and 16/8 are where I cut my teeth in computing (started with a -I and got upgraded). The -II did add some graphic capabilities over the -I, and we were able to run some (then) cutting edge graphics programs for business graphing (as add ons to dBase) and even print them on the daisy wheel Diablo 630 printer. There were also a surprising array of graphics oriented games, but limited by the block graphics which made more sense for business applications.

I had the 8" drive system, and eventually got a hard drive (Shugart sa1004 maybe?) that was a whopping 10meg. I still have technical manuals and software on 5" and 8" disk $ somehow I can''t part with them as momentos even though the computers were passed on long ago.

I''d love to get my hands on one to play around a little bit.

I did some programming for Xerox in the 80''s. A user friendly form maker for the laser printer 2700. One of the first tihing I did was to connect an on/off button for the disk drives. Now, after I have downloaded some documents that was unknown for me earlier, I had to do a reunion with my 820-II. I love block graphics! My challenge is to make the best block graphics program ever. /Mikael

Dave, it''s mrutkausattgeemale.com, translated into normal usage! Mike

I had one of these for a few years - probably was about 1993 or so. It was a gimme from an office supply store my mother worked at. Had some bootable software but not much else.

These were basically Big Board clones, same as the Kaypro series. I remember reading that somewhere, probably Micro C or something, and decided to try some of my Kaypro Software. With a little bit of terminal escape code modifications, most Kaypro stuff would run on a 820-II. Uniform was no problem, from what I remember.

Not sure what happened to that machine!

How does one get in touch with you Mike ?

i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.

i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.

i have what i believe is a IBM386 card for the xerox 820II, free to anyone who sends me a self addressed padded envelope with sufficient ($3?) postage attached. ask me first to see if anyone else has asked.

Anybody know how to get an 820-II to talk to a modern computer? I need to build a null modem cable so I can set it up as a terminal for a Linux machine, and while I do have a manual with the pin-out information for both serial channels, I don't know which wires are required for it to function properly. I'd like to do it in the basic terminal mode, without having to hook up the hard disk and load CP/M.

The Xerox 820-II in my posession actually has single-sided disk drives.

The X820-II had also a hardware ms-dos option. It consisted of an add-on board fit into the monitor/cpu. Of course the keyboard mapping was different to a pc keyboard, but ms-dos operating system was possible. Unfortunately I've destroyed my X820 about four years ago because both A and B floppy drives didn't work anymore.

I also worked for Xerox (from 1969 to 2004) and bought an 820 II through our employee purchase plan. It had a function for use as a typewriter. When booting you could select that funtion, turn on your printer and type away. I purchased mine with a Diablo 640 printer, DBase, Wordstar, SuperCalc and some brand of BASIC. If I remember correctly, the total cost was around $3600 US (maybe closer to $4000).

Well what can I say about this piece of history got one at home with printer (40 lbs) and the drives too.. I paid $200. US for it 5 years ago, you could say this was my first computer after the C64 ...LOL when I was pluggin everything in and turnig the power on, well, heard a Beep and saw a command prompt with bout 5 options then I realized that this was not a very good buy! but when I started reading the manuals (oh yeah lots of them...) I fell in love u could say with this piece of history. Found lots of Appl. Database (DbaseII), Wordprocessors (WordStar), Spredsheets (SuperCalc), a bunch of disks (8") with lots of files. programs, assemblers, linkers the works.... Oh yes did I MENTION THAT A LOT OF DOCS CAME WITH THIS BUY, everything describing tha OS (CPM) Sys calls (ROM) and lots of Info for developing new programs. Well nuff bout that if u need info about this puter gimme call.

PS . when I was experimenting I accedently ran the format command on the Sys disk (really dumb) well not really u see I booted from drive B with the sys disk and put another disk with no info on A, then I executed Format A or somethig like that and well it did.... u see I later found out that the boot drive will always be assigned as A.. Ahhhh this I found out later when I read the Docs.. Well if u guys and gals can help me out with the sys disk or files I would apreciate your help (sorry for my spelling)

Thx