doctorclu Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 (edited) Curerntly in another thread of the intiial Star Raiders 2 release it was discussed that while the binary image of the game was playable, the source code of the most recent update was on a Corvus 6 MB drive. Bob1200XL, who lives in the same area in California as the Corvus drive, was asked to help with the source receovery from the currently non-woirking Corvus drive. Bob asked for a new thread to be started to pool Corvus resources for the recovery project. It was there Bob wrote: "I have been talking to a guy that used to work at Corvus and he is willing to help. He does not know the Atari version, unfortunately, but he does remember many of the generic details about the systems. Can we start a new topic on this? There should be some decent manuals for these drives. Do we have them?" --------------------------- From here we can pool all resources and experiences in Corvus restoration. To start this off, here is the more relevant Corvus manual I have found so far: http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/corvus/7100-04703_B-Drive6mbSvc.pdf (Also attached) There were other Corvus manuals in this directory: http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/corvus/ We welcome other information related to the Corvus 6 MB and information others can find on this topic. Thanks! 7100-04703_B-Drive6mbSvc.pdf Edited January 3, 2016 by doctorclu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Here's some Corvus stuff, including the Atari software. Atari-Corvus.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 FYI, the programming information specific to the Atari interface is hidden in the COMU.ASM file of side 1 of the old SysGen disk, in the archive that Kyle22 posted. It's a nibble-wide interface. The platform-independent disk drive commands are documented in the Mass Storage GTI manual. The low-level interface is a relatively straightforward linear block read/write interface, much like Atari SIO-based disk drives. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Here are the PDF's that I have for Corvus. I'm pretty sure they were all posted in threads by Fibrewire. If anybody sees anything useful that's not available somewhere else I'll be glad to post it up. I've probably renamed some of these from what they were originally named when posted. So some of the documents might seem to be different on casual inspection, but I think any naming differences should be evident with a little thought from anyone comparing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Looks good! Can we bring the Corvus electronics up on a spare 6MB HDA? We really should verify the electronics and processes before we start messing around with our live data. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Just happened to have a Corvus 6MB drive up in the Attic. Spins up and comes Ready! Finding the rest of this thing will be a little harder. Does anyone have/know of what else I need? There is some kind of card that interfaces to the Atari Ports. Can someone lend me a good set? Bob 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Here's a link to the interface: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/182024-corvus-interface-ads-integrater/page-2?do=findComment&comment=2839916 The entire thread is full of good Corvus info. Fibrewire would be the one to ask about the interface. He may even have a schematic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Curious about the Corvus... The entire system including the disks/platters are in the main box, except for the interface which is called the Integrator? Were the disk modules changeable inside the main box (like the disk modules on old IBM 360's) -- so the module is bad and Bob found one to swap out, and now he needs the Integrator to (hopefully) make it work? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 The Integrator was basically an OS ROM replacement, so that you didn't need the Corvus boot disks. The Corvus disk system consisted of an IMI hard disk, with an intelligent Z-80 based controller, which exposes an 8-bit data and control interface. This is then implemented on the various host adaptors in different ways, usually it's a straight buffered 8-bit interface, with the addition of a BOOT ROM of some sort, but in the case of the Atari, it was implemented as a bi-directional 4-bits at a time interface using the two joystick ports. It could have just as easily been implemented via the cartridge port, or with a bit of abstraction, as a slower SIO device. PBI wasn't an option yet. (The controller itself had just enough bootstrap logic to load the first two cylinders on the disk, which contain the controller firmware, which can be upgraded.) -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Another question... In the Integrator docs, it mentions that a disk drive call is intercepted by the Integrator (OS) which decides if the call is for a floppy via SIOV or a call to a Corvus drive. Can someone tell me what I/O vector the Corvus uses (assuming it is that straight-forward)? I'm asking because I wrote A little Q&D benchmark for Fibrewire's Corvus that didn't work, presumably because it called SIOV for R/W. If I can gt the right vector, maybe I can get the benchmark working. The idea was to compare the transfer speed in the Corvus vs. newer hard drive systems. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 The raw transfer rate will be significantly lower than the IDE interfaces, since the Corvus interface only transfers 4 bits at a time and requires a few steps to transfer each nibble. The driver I have does reads at 81 cycles/byte, or about 14KB/sec on a standard screen. In contrast, the IDE interfaces are exceeding 60KB/sec (they're actually faster than a memory copy). Add in the Corvus using a old disk drive with long seek times and slow rotational speeds, and I imagine the Corvus would be an order of magnitude slower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Yep, just curious what it would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 Just happened to have a Corvus 6MB drive up in the Attic. Spins up and comes Ready! Finding the rest of this thing will be a little harder. Does anyone have/know of what else I need? There is some kind of card that interfaces to the Atari Ports. Can someone lend me a good set? Bob I've been reading this as we have received the input so far from everyone. Keep those ideas flowing. I notice we tend to be on two points right now: 1) Giving the Corvus drive a few days to settle in it's environment. 2) The possibility of needing another good working interface card. Is the second point still something you need Bob? If Fibrewire is open to lending his equipment to the project, that would be one possible source seven hours from your position. A good long drive I know, but listing known resources. Keatah was mentioned as a repairer of Corvus drives not sure where he lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 If it appears to be a problem in the interface card, we can talk directly to the drive controller. We do not need a fully functional disk system, just a way to dump all the sectors. Here is a file that talks about the Z80 interface. We could 'roll our own'. That said, yes, maybe Fibrewire will lend us his interface. We could duplicate an interface, also. Not sure that we need it at this point. Bob Corvus_Flat.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triads Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 (edited) Didn't Fibrewire leave the Atari scene due to personal issues and sell all of his hardware? Edited January 11, 2016 by Triads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 That may be the case. He is still a great source of information, since he actually had a Corvus up and running. At this point, we don't know whether we have an interface problem or not. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Didn't Fibrewire leave the Atari scene due to personal issues and sell all of his hardware? Defender II now owns Fibrewire's stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 progress report? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 As far as I know, the code was recovered from floppies. There should be another thread around here about it. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 It would still be interesting to see what's on it. Please don't give up just because of the floppies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I am in the middle of moving, so I can't do much at the moment. Where is the drive, now? Bob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup8pdct Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 What is on floppies doesn't match the working program. No idea which is the latter version tho. Also the latter floppy versions source isn't all there. I believe there should be another disk. James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor_x Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Fascinating discussion... I remember seeing mention of the corvus system in "Creative Computing" magazine... Always imagined what having "6mb" of data available to me would be like... Love it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 28, 2016 Author Share Posted April 28, 2016 So how did this go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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