Stearns Desktop Computer

A Stearns Desktop Computer, consisting of the desktop computer base, keyboard under and in front, and monochrome white phosphor monitor on top. The monitor and computer are powered on, showing the startup screen stating that the floppy drive and system are not OK.

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Released: May, 1983
Discontinued: 1984
Operating System: MS-DOS, ST-DOS, Concurrent CP/M

Acquired: December, 2024

In repair.

This computer seems to be a rarity, and I’m incredibly intrigued. The company hails from my home, Minneapolis, and it seems to be a better vision of the IBM PC. It has an 8086 instead of an 8088, a set proprietary 16-bit slots, has a great layout inside, a fairly attractive outside (at least once I remove the rust), and seems really solid. I’m not sure what happened to Stearns, but this seems like one heck of an opening volley from them.

Motherboard P/N 0220003-000 Rev X2
Motherboard Assy 0900003-000 Rev _

This Machine

  • Intel 8086 at 8 MHz
  • 896K RAM (expanded from 128K)
  • Monochrome graphics expansion, 80×26 text or 640×208 graphics
  • Ports:
    • 9 pin video out and 9 pin serial printer via expansion card
    • 25 pin RS-232 serial backed by the Intel 8251 USART
  • Expansion:
    • 5 proprietary 16-bit slots
    • 1 8-bit ISA slot

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