joeventura Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Just remember where you got the original units from and when you make the reproductions, remember who gets the first one (after you of course) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Just remember where you got the original units from and when you make the reproductions, remember who gets the first one (after you of course) Aye capt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apatama Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Hi fibrewire! Just discovered this topic. I, also, would be very interested in reproductions of both the Corvus HD interface and the ADS Integrator board. Personally, I'd love to be able to use Corvus 8" DS/DD external floppy disk drives with my Atari 8-bits, as well! Perhaps someone could duplicate/integrate the functionality of the Apple II Corvus FDD interface board into an Atari interface... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Small error in the first board. I've made the correction and new one should be ready after Christmas. Updates soon to follow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeventura Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 So you aren't doing the David Small ADS Integrater? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted December 24, 2013 Author Share Posted December 24, 2013 So you aren't doing the David Small ADS Integrater? Never could find one. David told me how the integrater worked for both revisions, as the second revision is a rom for the Newell ramrod. If you ever locate one, a rom dump would be appreciated! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeventura Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Never could find one. David told me how the integrater worked for both revisions, as the second revision is a rom for the Newell ramrod. If you ever locate one, a rom dump would be appreciated! Didnt Curt say he had one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted December 25, 2013 Author Share Posted December 25, 2013 Didnt Curt say he had one? Curt has everything, but he is WAY too swamped to look for the thing. I don't think he would mind making a dump of the rom if it was sitting in his desk, but LOOKING for the dang thing is half a nightmare in itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 If the firmware can't be reflashed on the disk system, then a format is required. From the manual: Formatting the Drive and Replacing the Firmware Formatting a drive is a drastic measure and should only be performed under extreme circumstances. If,however, it does become necessary to reformat the drive (due to inability to write firmware, bad tracks, etc.), some precautions should be taken. If important data is on the disk, some attempt should be made to recover it, as the reformatting process destroys it. If possible, the spare track table should be written down as this may contain some difficult to locate media errors which will cause trouble later if they are not caught by the CRC/Format check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 (edited) Still making progress with the interface boards, but I got really excited when I found -> THIS <- It's an emulator in C for the Corvus Disk System! Maybe this will show up in Altirra someday. http://mamedev.org/source/src/mess/machine/corvushd.c http://mamedev.org/source/src/mess/includes/corvushd.h Edited March 21, 2014 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted June 12, 2014 Author Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) Found a few links from a mirror of the Atari Historical Society from the turn of the millennia - there's so much from the old site that just isn't available today. Now if i can find an ADS Integrator board, we will be all set. http://firewi.com/ahs/400800.html Edited June 12, 2014 by fibrewire 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 More history on the Corvus: http://analog.klanky.com/funstuff.htm#TCS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) Took a look at the ADS Integrator on the old AHS mirror site today and noticed it's version 2 of the board. Version 2 was the better version and nothing more than a modified Newell Ramrod board with some sort of EPROM inverter at the top right of the board. The SIO vector is directly modified in the Atari ROMs then jumps to the Integrator software on the EPROM. The inverter exists because the Atari OS ROM that was patched was a masked ROM, and the EPROM insisted on being turned on one way (low), and the masked ROM insisted on the other (high). Integrator software had a configuration menu, supports booting from the Corvus Disk System and loads support for the Axlon 128K board. Sure would be nice to get a dump of that Integrator ROM, but now it's just a matter of finding that SIO vector and sticking the boot loader for the Corvus Disk System in a custom ROM for the Newell Ramrod. I wish i could've seen screenshots of the Integrator's config menu... Edited June 26, 2014 by fibrewire 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 Finally found a good shot of the Corvus Multiplexer in the wild. I'm getting closer to making a Corvus powered BBS a dream come true! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) And another... Edited July 3, 2014 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COBRAIP Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Just wanted to let you know that with the addition of a Corvus Systems Constellation you can run 64 computers on one hard drive system at the same time. This can also be accomplished by having 8 multiplexers hooked up to one Corvus Systems as each multiplexer will manage 8 computers. This has been used in several schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) I "think" i have the constellation config software - it's part of the diagnostic program. Unfortunately I don't see any extra software packages for the Atari (like CP/M or Pascal) that came with the Apple II, TRS-80, or the Zenith Z-89 / Heath H-89. The only redeeming quality is that all the corvus software on the disks and in this thread are written in Atari Basic Edited July 3, 2014 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeventura Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Took a look at the ADS Integrator on the old AHS mirror site today and noticed it's version 2 of the board. Version 2 was the better version and nothing more than a modified Newell Ramrod board with some sort of EPROM inverter at the top right of the board. The SIO vector is directly modified in the Atari ROMs then jumps to the Integrator software on the EPROM. The inverter exists because the Atari OS ROM that was patched was a masked ROM, and the EPROM insisted on being turned on one way (low), and the masked ROM insisted on the other (high). Integrator software had a configuration menu, supports booting from the Corvus Disk System and loads support for the Axlon 128K board. Sure would be nice to get a dump of that Integrator ROM, but now it's just a matter of finding that SIO vector and sticking the boot loader for the Corvus Disk System in a custom ROM for the Newell Ramrod. I wish i could've seen screenshots of the Integrator's config menu... I noticed that also about the Newell board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Wow, this is fascinating. I never new about these Corvus drives "back in the day", but I imagine they were stupid expensive. How many of them are still known to exist? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) The corvus setup was fairly popular on apple and early PC. What was not popular was the crappy ass-rig of an "interface" that they made as an afterthought to cater to the 3 or 4 Atari people out there who had the money to buy the corvus system, and were crazy enough to waste it by hooking it up to the Atari. The functionality is absolutely laughable compared to anything you'd think could be marketed as useable. Worked really well on Apple II "workgroups" though.. Was pretty popular for school computer labs, and "electronic card catalogue" applications in Libraries. The Corvus integrator cards they made for the apple (like an NIC card to put the apple on the Corvus network) were a pretty extensive piece of engineering for their day.. Unfortunately, the ATARI interface for corvus was an absolute kludge and wasn't even remotely comparable.. Edited July 16, 2014 by MEtalGuy66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 Unfortunately, the ATARI interface for corvus was an absolute kludge and wasn't even remotely comparable.. The interface and software for the Atari was a creative solution. At the time it was released it was compatible with all existing software on Atari DOS 2.D and made space addressable as 180K DD disks. To access a sector from DOS one would have to specify the mount table position instead of something more conventional like FAT. Transfer speeds are comparable to any PBI attached device as the interface is 8-bit parallel right through the joystick ports to PIA Port B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 How many of them are still known to exist? Ricortes, Chris A, Curt V, and myself are the only ones I know with original Atari Interfaces. There are probably many disk drives still floating around, as I have had nearly 20 in my possession at one time. I only have four of the disk systems now, two of which are in use on my current system 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogden Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Will the Corvus interface talk to drives that weren't produced by Corvus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 21, 2014 Author Share Posted July 21, 2014 Will the Corvus interface talk to drives that weren't produced by Corvus? No, but it's pretty similar to the MyIDE for the 800. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Yeah, the "Interface" is just an 8-bit bus interface, much like the first XT IDE interfaces. The Corvus disks had an IMI hard disk, attached to an intelligent controller, with a Z80 on it, some firmware, some RAM, and the controller hardware, making it an intelligent device, with its own command set. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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