Path: 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

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}
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