Corvus Systems#Networking

Corvus was founded by Michael D'Addio and Mark Hahn in 1979. This San Jose, Silicon Valley company pioneered in the early days of personal computers, producing the first hard disk drives, data backup, and networking devices, commonly for the Apple II. The combination of disk storage, backup, and networking was very popular in primary and secondary education. A classroom would have a single drive and backup with a full classroom of Apple II computers networked together. Students would log in each time they use the computer and access their work

via the Corvus Omninet network, which also supported eMail.

They went public in 1981 and were traded on the NASDAQ exchange. In 1985 Corvus acquired a company named Onyx & IMI.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/26/business/corvus-systems-inc-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-aug-31.html

|title=CORVUS SYSTEMS INC reports earnings for Qtr to Aug 31

|quote=include Onyx & Imi ... which was acquired July 30

|date=October 26, 1985}}{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/15/business/corvus-systems-inc-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-feb-28.html

|title=CORVUS SYSTEMS INC reports earnings for Qtr to Feb 28

|quote=acquisition of Onyx & IMI Inc.

|date=April 15, 1986}}{{cite web |website=San Jose Public Library

|url=https://www.sjpl.org/svca/onyx-imi-inc

|title=Onyx & IMI, Inc.

|quote=Onyx & Imi, Inc. Closed - Bought by Corvus Systems, Inc., 1985}} IMI (International Memories Incorporated) manufactured the hard disks used by Corvus.

The New York Times followed their financial fortunes.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/23/business/corvus-systems-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-nov-30.html

|title=Corvus Systems reports earnings for Qtr to Nov 30

|date=January 23, 1989}}{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/13/business/corvus-systems-inc-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-may-31.html

|title=CORVUS SYSTEMS INC reports earnings for Qtr to May 31

|date=August 13, 1986}}{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 28, 1983

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/28/business/corvus-systems-inc-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-aug-31.html

|title=CORVUS SYSTEMS INC reports earnings for Qtr to Aug 31}} They were a modest success in the stock market during their first few years as a public company. The company's founders left Corvus in 1985 as the remaining board of directors made the decision to enter the PC clone market.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} D'Addio and Hahn went on to found Videonics in 1986, the same year Corvus discontinued hardware

manufacturing.{{cite news |newspaper=Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-02-fi-954-story.html

|title=Corvus Systems said it plans to discontinue manufacturing at White City, Ore.

|date=August 2, 1986}}

In 1987, Corvus{{cite news |newspaper=Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-12-fi-3826-story.html

|title=William R. Halford joins Corvus Systems |date=June 12, 1987}} filed for Chapter 11.{{cite news

|newspaper=Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-30-fi-3291-story.html

|title=THE TIMES 100 : THE BEST PERFORMING COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA : WHO, WHAT & WHERE : The Meaning of It All: Criteria, Notes : Reverse Spinoffs, Equity and Other Arcana Used to Develop The Times 100 |date=April 30, 1989}}{{cite web

|url=https://techmonitor.ai/techonology/corvus_in_chapter_11_puts_up_fierce_opposition_to_reorganisation_plan

|title=Corvus, In Chapter 11, Puts Up Fierce Opposition To Reorganisation Plan

|date=February 22, 1990}} That same year two top executives left.{{cite news

|newspaper=Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-13-fi-4020-story.html

|title=Corvus Systems: CFO resignation |date=May 13, 1987}}{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-15-fi-5053-story.html

|title=Corvus Systems: Chairman/CEO resignation |date=May 15, 1987}} Its demise was partially caused by Ethernet establishing itself over Omninet as the local area network standard for PCs, and partially by the decision to become a PC clone company in a crowded and unprofitable market space.

The company modified Apple DOS for the Apple II to enable using Corvus's 10 MB Winchester technology hard disk drives. Apple DOS normally was limited to the usage of 140 KB floppy disks. The Corvus disks not only increased the size of available storage but were also considerably faster than floppy disks. These disk drives were initially sold to software engineers inside Apple Computer.{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}

The disk drives were manufactured by IMI (International Memories Incorporated) in Cupertino, California. Corvus provided the hardware and software to interface them to the Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 8-bit computers,{{Cite web|url=https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue26/212_2_NEW_PRODUCTS_CORVUS_ANNOUNCES_MASS_STORAGE_AND_NETWORK_SYSTEMS_FOR_ATARI_800.php|title=New Products: Corvus Announces Mass Storage And Network Systems For Atari 800|website=www.atarimagazines.com|access-date=2018-08-10}} and S-100 bus systems. Later, the DEC Rainbow, Corvus Concept, IBM PC, and Mac, were added to the list. These 5 MB and 10 MB drives were twice the size of a shoebox and initially retailed for US$5000. Corvus sold many stand-alone drives whose numbers increased as they became shared over Omninet. This allowed sharing a then-very costly hard drive among multiple, relatively inexpensive Apple II computers. An entire office or classroom could thus share a single Omninet-connected Corvus drive.

Certain models of the drives offered a tape backup option called "Mirror" to make hard disk backups using a VCR, which was itself a relatively new technology. A standalone version of "Mirror" was also made available. Data was backed up at roughly one megabyte per minute which resulted in five or ten-minute backup times. Tapes could hold up to 73MB. Even though Corvus had a {{US Patent|4380047A}} on this technology, several other computer companies later used this technique.

A later version of tape backup for the Corvus Omninet was called The Bank.{{cite web

|url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_corvusservankSvc_7761259 |title=The Bank (Corvus)}} and was a standalone Omninet connected device that used custom backup tape media that were very similar in shape and size to today's DLT tapes. Both the Corvus File Server and The Bank tape backup units were in white plastic housings roughly the size of two stacked reams of paper.

In 1980, Corvus came out with the first commercially successful local area network (LAN), called Omninet.{{cite web

|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/brochures/Apple_II_Omninet_Brochure.pdf

|title=Aplle II Omninet Brochure}} Most Ethernet deployments of the time ran at 3 Mbit/s and cost one or two thousand dollars per computer. Ethernet also used a thick and heavy cable that felt like a lead pipe when bent,{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} which was run in proximity to each computer, often in the ceiling plenum. The weight of the cable was such that injury to workers from ceiling failure and falling cables was a real danger. A transceiver unit was spliced or tapped into the cable for each computer, with an additional AUI cable running from the transceiver to the computer itself.

Corvus's Omninet ran at one megabit per second, used twisted pair cables and had a simple add-in card for each computer. The card cost $400[https://archive.org/details/TNM_Various_press_releases_for_local_area_compute_20170827_0632/page/n4/mode/1up Corvus Press Release incl pricing], page 5. and could be installed by the end user. Cards and operating software were produced for both the Apple II and the IBM PC and XT. At the time, many networking experts said that twisted pair could never work because "the bits would leak off"{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}, but it eventually became the de-facto standard for wired LANs.

Other Omninet devices included the "Utility Server" that was an Omninet connected device that allowed one Parallel printer and two Serial devices (usually printers) connected to it to be shared on an Omninet network. Internally the Utility Server was a single-board Z80 computer with 64 kB of RAM, and on startup the internal boot ROM retrieved its operating program from the File Server. The literature/documentation and software that shipped with the Utility Server included a memory map and I/O ports writeup. It was possible to replace the Utility Server's operating code file with a stand-alone copy of WordStar configured for the serial port, and to fetch and save its files on the file server. A dumb terminal connected to the first serial port then became an inexpensive diskless word processing station.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}

A single Omninet was limited to 64 devices, and the device address was set with a 5-bit DIP switch: spending both sides of the dollar bill.since 2^5=32 combinations Device zero was the first file server, device one was the Mirror or The Bank tape backup, the rest were user computers, or Utility Servers. Systems with more than one file server had them at zero and up, then the tape backup, then the user computers. No matter what the configuration, one could only have 64 devices.

In April 1982, Corvus launched a computer called the Corvus Concept.{{cite newsgroup

| title = Corvus Concept workstation

| author = Rich Zellich

| date = 1982-05-07

| newsgroup = net.works

| url = https://groups.google.com/group/net.works/msg/dd567824d4e142e4

| accessdate = 2007-12-19

}} This was a Motorola 68000-based computer in a pizza-box case with a 15" full page display mounted on its top, the first that could be rotated between landscape and portrait modes.{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-03151_Edword_User_Guide_Feb83.pdf|title=Edword User Guide|access-date=2013-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525132859/http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-03151_Edword_User_Guide_Feb83.pdf|archive-date=2013-05-25|url-status=dead}} Changing display orientation did not require rebooting the computer - it was all automatic and seamless and selected by a mercury switch inside the monitor shell. The screen resolution was 720×560 pixels. Positioned vertically, the monitor displayed 72 rows by 91 columns of text; the horizontal resolution was 56 rows by 120 columns.{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1984-06/page/n27/mode/2up | title=Wide Screen Computing | magazine=Creative Computing | last1=Blank | first1=George | date=June 1984 | access-date=26 April 2024 | pages=26–28,30,32–34 }}{{citation|url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n6/26_Wide_screen_computing.php|title=Wide screen computing}}

The first version of the Concept came with 256 kB standard,{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-03291_ConceptHWRef_Feb83.pdf|title=Concept Hardware Reference Manual Feb '83|access-date=2013-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525135124/http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-03291_ConceptHWRef_Feb83.pdf|archive-date=2013-05-25|url-status=dead}} and expanding the RAM to its maximum supported capacity of 1MB cost {{US$|long=no|995}} at the time. The Concept was capable of using more RAM, and a simple hack provided up to 4 MB. The failure of the Concept was mostly related to its lack of compatibility with the IBM PC, introduced the previous August.{{cite web|url=http://webspace.webring.com/people/lu/um_3788/t2krev.txt|title=TRS-80 Model 2000 Review, Computers & Electronics magazine July 1984|date=November 6, 2020 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=653|title=CORVUS SYSTEMS Concept}}

The Concept interface, though not a GUI, was a standardized text user interface that made heavy use of function keys. Application programs could contextually redefine these keys, and the current command performed by each key was displayed on a persistent status line at the bottom of the screen. The function keys were placed on the top row of the keyboard close to their onscreen representation. A crude "Paint" program was available for {{US$|long=no|395}} that permitted a user to create simple bitmap graphics.{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/brochures/Paint.pdf|title= Paint brochure}} These could be pasted into Corvus' word processing program called "Edword", which was quite powerful by the standards of the day; it was judged to be worth the cost of the system by itself.{{cite web|url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n6/26_Wide_screen_computing.php|title=Wide screen computing}}

The operating system, called CCOS, was prompt-driven, communicating with the user using full sentences such as Copy which file(s)? when the "Copy file" function key was pressed. The user would respond by typing the path of the file to be copied. The OS would then prompt for a destination path. Wildcard pattern matching was supporting using the * and ? characters. The OS supported pipes and "Exec files", which were similar to shell scripts.

Versions of the Concept running Unix were available; these configurations could not run standard Concept software. The UCSD p-System was available, and a Pascal compiler was available supporting most UCSD extensions{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/net.works/arhuwL0Dta4 |title=Corvus Concept review}} FORTRAN was also standard. Built-in BASIC was also an option, enabling the computer to boot without a disk attached.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} A software CP/M emulator was available from Corvus, but it was of limited usefulness since it only emulated Intel 8080 instructions and not the more-common Z80-specific instructions. Wesleyan University ported the KERMIT file transfer protocol.{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ftp/e/mail.83a|title=KERMIT Available on the ARPANET}}

The entire motherboard could slide out of the back of the cabinet for easy access to perform upgrades and repairs. The system was equipped with four 50-pin Apple II bus-compatible slots for expansion cards. External 5.25" and 8" floppy disk drive peripherals (made by Fujitsu) were available for the Concept. The 8" drive had a formatted capacity of 250 kB. The 5.25" drive was read-only, and disks held 140kB. The video card was integrated in the monitor's update circuitry.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} The system had a battery-backed hardware clock that stored the date and month, but not the year. There was a leap year switch that set February to have 29 days.{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-04701_ConceptSvcMan.pdf|title=Concept Service Manual|access-date=2013-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525133823/http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/concept/7100-04701_ConceptSvcMan.pdf|archive-date=2013-05-25|url-status=dead}}

The system had a built in Omninet port on it. The system could boot from a locally-connected floppy disk or Corvus Hard Drive or it could be booted over the Omninet network.

In 1984, the base 256K system cost {{US$|long=no|3995}} with monitor and keyboard and bundled Edword word processor. The floppy drive cost an additional {{US$|long=no|750}}. Hard drives from 6MB ({{US$|long=no|2195}}) to 20MB ({{US$|long=no|3995}}) were also available (SCSI I on some). A software bundle containing ISYS integrated spreadsheet, graphing, word processing, and communication software cost {{US$|long=no|495}}. The hardware necessary for networking cost {{US$|long=no|495}} per workstation. The Concept Unix workstation came with 512K and cost {{US$|long=no|4295}} for the Concept Uniplex that can be expanded to two users and {{US$|long=no|5995}} for the Concept Plus that can service eight users. The Concept was available as part of turnkey systems from OEMs, such as the Oklahoma Seismic Corporation Mira for oil well exploration, and the KeyText Systems BookWare for publishing.{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/brochures/Mira.pdf|title=Brochure for Oklahoma Seismic Corporation Mira}}{{cite web|url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/brochures/KeyText_Bookware.pdf|title=Brochure for KeyText Systems BookWare}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/corvus/ Collection of Corvus documentation]
• [http://www.corvusmuseum.com/ The Corvus Museum Website]

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Category:Computer companies established in 1979

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