kogden Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Ah. Sounds pretty cool. I'm assuming the IMI drives are MFM? Kinda makes replacing a drive expensive if it keels over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 (edited) Ah. Sounds pretty cool. I'm assuming the IMI drives are MFM? Kinda makes replacing a drive expensive if it keels over. It's not too bad. There are always plenty of corvus drives floating around, and used IMI drives can be found on eBay. Others have had luck using substitute hard disks. Check out THIS BROCHURE to see the models supported by the Corvus enclosure. Edited July 24, 2014 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 Just wanted to add a video to the collection. It's the corvus drive diagnostic software running on two daisy-chained drives. Enjoy! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 How far did you get on making the boards? Schematics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 It is very doubtful they still have it, much less use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I was hoping that someone who is interested in this, and is a friendly, outgoing type may contact them and ask. I'm not at all good at making 'cold' calls, and would get tongue tied and twisted if I even thought about contacting them. (just an earth bound misfit, I) [+1 if you know where that's from] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Their Hall of Fame mentions two Jesuits who got hooked on Space Invaders on the 800, then learned BASIC and introduced programming and computers to the school. http://www.fordhamprep.org/page.cfm?p=5101 http://www.fordhamprep.org/page.cfm?p=5106 More about the school's use of the Atari: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n6/MakestheGrade.html And an earlier thread says that they ditched the system nearly 20 years ago: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/16730-8-bit-hard-drives/page-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) That's a shame they threw them out... I guess it was wishful thinking... It sure would be nice to reproduce these, now that Avery has so kindly made it possible to use Corvus drives on XL/XEs in Altirra. It only requires a change in the software from PORTB to PORTA and PBCTL to PACTL. I have made the changes to the Corvus SYSGEN disk and boot disk, and it works in emulation with XL/XE. Sadly, I have no (physical) Corvus drive (of that type) to try it with on real hardware. Oh well, an interface will turn up that we can clone. Fibrewire kindly posted pictures, so that makes it easier to figure out what they're doing. There's only 10 TTL chips (IIRC) in the interface, so it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Thanks to anyone who can continue this project by posting pictures / schematics of their Corvus interface. Edit: Multiplexers too, and if anyone has a dump of the Integrator ROM, please post it here. Edited January 17, 2016 by Kyle22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Sexy 70s tech... look where we are now with all the storage today (typing this on his iPhone 6s.....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Most all that stuff was amazingly big, but at least no vacuum tubes! -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Most all that stuff was amazingly big, but at least no vacuum tubes! -Larry I like vacuum tubes. (in my radio, not my computer) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Tom Hudson wrote about cloning boards for the ANALOG TCS. Cheaper than buying them. Then they used the first two ports for r/w access control and a chat system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Interesting article. Here's the link: http://analog.klanky.com/funstuff.htm#TCS There has to be schematics somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeventura Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Their Hall of Fame mentions two Jesuits who got hooked on Space Invaders on the 800, then learned BASIC and introduced programming and computers to the school. http://www.fordhamprep.org/page.cfm?p=5101 http://www.fordhamprep.org/page.cfm?p=5106 More about the school's use of the Atari: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n6/MakestheGrade.html And an earlier thread says that they ditched the system nearly 20 years ago: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/16730-8-bit-hard-drives/page-2 I am a personal friend of Fr Nick Lombardi, its all gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Has anyone found a ROM dump of the the Integrator? That is what I really want to see (and dis-assemble). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted August 3, 2016 Author Share Posted August 3, 2016 (edited) Has anyone found a ROM dump of the the Integrator? That is what I really want to see (and dis-assemble). When i talked to david, he said there is no difference between the ADS Integrator and the RAMROD card made by Newell. The first edition ADS integrator was special, but then experienced legal issues from some unnamed entity. A few second-generation "ADS Integrator" boards were all Newell RAMROD boards with the same boot code that is used on the Corvus boot floppy, available for download on this thread. Edited August 3, 2016 by fibrewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 When i talked to david, he said there is no difference between the ADS Integrator and the RAMROD card made by Newell. The first edition ADS integrator was special, but then experienced legal issues from some unnamed entity. A few second-generation "ADS Integrator" boards were all Newell RAMROD boards with the same boot code that is used on the Corvus boot floppy, available for download on this thread. This is good news since Wes Newell donated most Newell products to public domain. I'm not certain this included the RAMROD MMOS personality board, it seems likely though since he did place the manual into the PD. https://archive.org/details/NewellIndustriesRAMRODMMOSManual Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 When i talked to david, he said there is no difference between the ADS Integrator and the RAMROD card made by Newell. The first edition ADS integrator was special, but then experienced legal issues from some unnamed entity. A few second-generation "ADS Integrator" boards were all Newell RAMROD boards with the same boot code that is used on the Corvus boot floppy, available for download on this thread. I was looking for a ROM dump where the Corvus code is already integrated into the OS. Then I want to dis-integrate it and re-integrate it into different (XL) OSs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted August 17, 2016 Author Share Posted August 17, 2016 I was looking for a ROM dump where the Corvus code is already integrated into the OS. Then I want to dis-integrate it and re-integrate it into different (XL) OSs. Well, perhaps what you are looking for is in this 1KB boot floppy I've attached. He said it's just a memory location it looks for on boot changed to access the loader on the corvus drive. corvus_boot.atr 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 Finally found the high resolution pics of the corvus interface that Joe sent me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 (edited) A few more pictures showing ribbon cable orientation on the Corvus interface in regard to the controller ports and interface box. Edited August 27, 2016 by fibrewire 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 A few more pictures showing ribbon cable orientation on the Corvus interface in regard to the controller ports and interface box. Again - one of the coolest 800 setups I have ever seen. I still say it's a shame to have a 256 colour machine on a monochrome orange screen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R4ngerM4n Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 (edited) Wow, these Corvus drives are huge! Edited August 28, 2016 by R4ngerM4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 That's a shame they threw them out... I guess it was wishful thinking... It sure would be nice to reproduce these, now that Avery has so kindly made it possible to use Corvus drives on XL/XEs in Altirra. It only requires a change in the software from PORTB to PORTA and PBCTL to PACTL. I have made the changes to the Corvus SYSGEN disk and boot disk, and it works in emulation with XL/XE. Sadly, I have no (physical) Corvus drive (of that type) to try it with on real hardware. Oh well, an interface will turn up that we can clone. Fibrewire kindly posted pictures, so that makes it easier to figure out what they're doing. There's only 10 TTL chips (IIRC) in the interface, so it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Thanks to anyone who can continue this project by posting pictures / schematics of their Corvus interface. Edit: Multiplexers too, and if anyone has a dump of the Integrator ROM, please post it here. Bump! Any ADS Integrator dumps yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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