Article View: comp.sys.misc
Article #2169Re: What's a Corvus
From: Greg A. Woods
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1990 06:03
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1990 06:03
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In article <935@tlc.tlc.com> conrad@tlc.UUCP (Conrad Dost) writes:
> Lee Dunbar writes:
>
> > By brother-in-law recently bought a Corvus Machine.
>
> This is probably a CORVUS concept.
>
> The CORVUS concept was limited to 512kb of ram, had a 68000 cpu with no
> memory management hardware and a large monochrome monitor with bitmap graphics.
> No cards can be plugged into it. To hook up a hard disk you have to use the
> CORVUS network which is slow.
Sort of like a tty5620DMD :-) (Only mine has 1 Mb of RAM!)
When I was at the University of Calgary (~1984), there were a number
of people working on a project called JADE (Just Another Distributed
Environment). Some of the "workstations" used were Corvus Concepts.
JADE workstations were a bit like the blit/DMD environment.
Anyway, from the JADE User's Manual, some more bits of info:
560 x 720 x 1 bitmapped screen, which may be paleced in either
"landscape" or "portrait" orientation.
Full ASCII keyboard
Software controlled speaker
Three button optical mouse
Omninet LAN (1Mb/s) interface
Two EIA ports (one for the mouse)
Apple II bus
I probably have copies of the Corvus brochures somewhere, bit I
wouldn't bet I could find them.
I remember the Concept when it was first introduced. It was fare more
exciting than the average PC and a better processor, and except for a
few odd things like the network interface, I thought at the time it
would be neat to have one, especially since I was (and sill am) quite
interested in window systems and workstation concepts. Now you'd have
a tough time making me give up my 5620!
(The other primary workstation used in the JADE project was the
Cadlinc Sun Workstation. It had higher resolution (1024x780), more
memory (768Kb + display RAM), special graphics hardware, Pronet
network interface (10Mb/s), 6 EIA ports, and MULTIBUS expansion
slots. This machine was considered to have far more potential than
the Concept.)
--
Greg A. Woods
woods@{robohack,gate,tmsoft,ontmoh,utgpu,gpu.utcs.Toronto.EDU,utorgpu.BITNET}
+1 416 443-1734 [h] +1 416 595-5425 [w] VE3-TCP Toronto, Ontario; CANADA
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!telly!robohack!woods From: woods@robohack.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc Subject: Re: What's a Corvus Message-ID: <1990Jan5.060349.25937@robohack.UUCP> Date: 5 Jan 90 06:03:49 GMT References: <935@tlc.tlc.com> Distribution: usa Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc. Lines: 57