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Corvus Interface & ADS Integrater


fibrewire

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According to the Atari Historical Society http://firewi.com/ahs/corvus.html

there is (was) a school using 64 800s all multiplexed to a Corvus.

 

The school still exists, and I wonder if they still use their Atari stuff, or if they still have it (or know where it went).

 

Fordham Prep: http://www.fordhamprep.org/

 

That's a nice lot of interfaces and multiplexers just waiting to be reverse-engineered and duplicated icon_smile.gif

Unfortunately no, Father Nick Lombardi retired and when I had called about 15 years ago the new head of the lab said they pulled all of the cabling and threw everything out...

 

I was devastated upon hearing this as there were 64 800's with intergrators, mux's and equipment, all that was destroyed, what a waste :-(

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Unfortunately no, Father Nick Lombardi retired and when I had called about 15 years ago the new head of the lab said they pulled all of the cabling and threw everything out...

 

I was devastated upon hearing this as there were 64 800's with intergrators, mux's and equipment, all that was destroyed, what a waste :-(

I never understand when schools do that sort of thing, and then go on and on about they need money, and this and that... they are ALWAYS trashing stuff, throwing things away, and demanding newer and better replacements be bought... You would think they would sell, or donate the stuff and recoup some dollars... I get tired of the fund raisers sales and bake sales and etc etc etc, along with demands of higher taxes to pay for it all, and please buy supplies for the school, and donate time and this and that, only to watch awesome stuff get destroyed and thrown away ALL the time. They do the same thing with modern day stuff as well, they never get anything repaired... they toss it and buy new. Always updating and upgrading and never reclaiming a dollar. It's the same everywhere... and very sad state of affairs. They just don't value much of anything, and are always going on about pay etc etc. I think they might try changing the way the schools are managed, change from within would get them much farther than all the other stuff... let's not even consider all the laptops and tablets students abscond with either... that's another amazing story that keeps happening...and of course they need replacing too since we couldn't possibly hold the poor child or parent responsible for the missing equipment.

 

lol sorry about that.... it builds up over time... :)

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I never understand when schools do that sort of thing, and then go on and on about they need money, and this and that... they are ALWAYS trashing stuff, throwing things away, and demanding newer and better replacements be bought... You would think they would sell, or donate the stuff and recoup some dollars...

 

Actually, we did just this at my High School. ;)

 

After graduation, I was hired on a part-time, casual basis to provide technical support for the school's computer lab. A year or so later, the decision was made to upgrade to more modern (PC) hardware. To the extent possible, we sold-off the old computers and applied the money to the purchase of new PCs. I do not recall if we were able also to sell the assorted network hardware, cabling, etc. We raised some money, but not a huge amount.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've scanned in all of the boards and updated Corvus Museum. I also included a very early and incomplete new version of the Corvus Atari Interface in a ZIP file in a link on this page. I am dumping the ROM's now and will update the page again tomorrow with all of the ROM images...

 

http://www.corvusmuseum.com/constellation/atari/interfaces/

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Actually, we did just this at my High School. ;)

 

After graduation, I was hired on a part-time, casual basis to provide technical support for the school's computer lab. A year or so later, the decision was made to upgrade to more modern (PC) hardware. To the extent possible, we sold-off the old computers and applied the money to the purchase of new PCs. I do not recall if we were able also to sell the assorted network hardware, cabling, etc. We raised some money, but not a huge amount.

 

 

Some of my local schools do this too, and attempt to sell old laptops and gear to students or the public. One of the big reasons, so I hear, that things are usually "destroyed" is for tax purposes, and there is some confusion with laws when selling something you previously wrote off and now having to claim that income. That is very different than donations.

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I never understand when schools do that sort of thing, and then go on and on about they need money, and this and that...

To judge that you’d probably have to know when the school ripped that out. I remember replacing some early network in my father‘s office with coax ethernet and the stuff I ripped out was considered so arcane I didn‘t even think about re-using/selling/etc. Plus there was no easy way to pass on such stuff. Classifieds cost money and a lawyer‘s office wouldn‘t necessarily want to deal with callers looking for electronics deals. The dealers who sold new stuff wouldn’t take the arcane stuff even for free because they couldn’t sell it anyway. I assume by the time the school ripped out the Ataris they were considered as valuable as old plumbing and therefore abandoned.

 

The only ones who kept stuff were those with an emotional attachment. Same with cars, otherwise Oldtimers wouldn’t be as rare ;-)

 

 

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

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If they can sell moms chocolate chip cookies, am sure they could have sold the stuff no problem, plenty of folks would have bought the stuff, a few hundred here or there adds up. otherwise why are they always selling cookies, pies, popcorn, food, arts, crafts... No most of the schools didn't bother, they would have sold if given the chance, I don't remember hearing anybody say they thought otherwise. The schools are slightly better about it today, at least some of them e cycle, but too few have a benefit sale or tech. They still toss perfectly good stuff only 3 or 4 years old. hardly scrap or old plumbing... although some school district are starting to lease stuff, some make a good agreement, others not so much..

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I've scanned in all of the boards and updated Corvus Museum. I also included a very early and incomplete new version of the Corvus Atari Interface in a ZIP file in a link on this page. I am dumping the ROM's now and will update the page again tomorrow with all of the ROM images...

 

http://www.corvusmuseum.com/constellation/atari/interfaces/

Cool, although I may have jumped the gun a little, still getting links that go no where... I give it another look tomorrow :)

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Cool, although I may have jumped the gun a little, still getting links that go no where... I give it another look tomorrow :)

You didn't jump the gun... I hadn't loaded it yet ;-)

 

The ROM's are all dumped, zipped and posted on the page, click on the red CLICK HERE links to download them. It appears the ROMs A, E and F on the 2 modified Newell RAMRODs appear to be the same, and the ROM on the Integrator Rev 6.0 board appears to also be the same as ROM A on the other boards, but is located in the E position, but the INT 6.0 board is a much different design. I will be fully detailing all of the chips, linking to datasheets and also on the modified Newell's I will be detail the cut & strap modifications connecting to the 7404 gate. The Newell board #2 just has its dipswitches removed and hardwired, but also has one of the 74LS138's removed and a 4.7k resistor is added between it and the other remaining on the board 138.

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You didn't jump the gun... I hadn't loaded it yet ;-)

 

The ROM's are all dumped, zipped and posted on the page, click on the red CLICK HERE links to download them. It appears the ROMs A, E and F on the 2 modified Newell RAMRODs appear to be the same, and the ROM on the Integrator Rev 6.0 board appears to also be the same as ROM A on the other boards, but is located in the E position, but the INT 6.0 board is a much different design. I will be fully detailing all of the chips, linking to datasheets and also on the modified Newell's I will be detail the cut & strap modifications connecting to the 7404 gate. The Newell board #2 just has its dipswitches removed and hardwired, but also has one of the 74LS138's removed and a 4.7k resistor is added between it and the other remaining on the board 138.

That's a sweet page Curt. Thanks again!

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  • 2 months later...

How am I just noticing this thread now? I have an original Atari interface (courtesy of Curt some years back) and now that I'm retiring will probably have the time to bring it up. Did either of these projects (reissue of Corvus board and/or Integrator) ever see the light of day?

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