Corvette () was an 8-bit personal computer in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, created specifically for

Education in the Soviet Union Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also f ...

in the 1980s. The initial prototype of this computer emerged in 1985 as a project by

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

employees, primarily for conducting physics experiments. It was originally a homemade computer. The first description, including the documentation detailing its specifications, was made in the magazine ''«Microprocessor tools and systems»''. The PC was named PK 8001 ( (21 August 1985)).

Graphics

This computer had advanced graphics capabilities for its time, featuring a single video mode using four planes: three for graphics and one for text. The graphic planes sport a resolution of , while the text plane can display either or text using two sets of 256

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

characters for both modes. It is capable of showing 16 colors on screen, with 8 freely selectable colors and an additional 8 colors achievable by combining text

symbols A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise different concep ...

and pixels. Any logical color can correspond to any of the 0 to 15 RGBI hardware palette colors. The graphic video

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

size is 192 KB (4 pages) or 48 KB (1 page), while the text video RAM size is 1 KB, using 9-bit static RAM. The 9th bit serves as the reverse video attribute, and there is no contention for access to video and processor RAM. The Corvette incorporates a method to accelerate filling an area with a specific color, potentially outpacing the performance of an

IBM PC AT The IBM Personal Computer AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 802 ...

with an EGA card in this particular task.

Sound

One channel of the

Intel 8253 The Intel 8253 and 8254 are programmable interval timers (PITs), which perform timing and counting functions using three 16-bit counters. The 825x family was primarily designed for the Intel 8080/ 8085-processors, but were later used in x86 ...

programmable IC is used to generate sound.

Software

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

interpreter in ROM, fully compliant with the

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

standard, including all graphic commands (drawing points, lines, rectangles, filled rectangles, circles, ellipses, arcs, closed area filling, DRAW), working with integers, etc. * Operation systems

MicroDOS CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. CP/M is ...

(МикроДОС) and CP/M-80 (with

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

driver) *

Text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...

«Супертекст», «Микромир» (MIM), etc. *

DBMS In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and ana ...

dBase II dBase (also stylized dBASE) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system included the core database engine, a query system, a forms engine, and a programming languag ...

Spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

Microsoft Multiplan * Compilers for Fortran, Pascal, C,

Ada Ada may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle'', a novel by Vladimir Nabokov Film and television * Ada, a character in 1991 movie '' Armour of God II: Operation Condor'' * '' Ada... A Way of Life'', a 2008 Bollywo ...

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotl ...

Lisp Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish notation#Explanation, prefix notation. Originally specified in the late 1950s, ...

PL/M PL/M, an acronym for ''Programming Language for Microcomputers'', is a high-level language conceived and developed by Gary Kildall in 1973 for Hank Smith at Intel for the Intel 8008. It was later expanded for the newer Intel 8080. The 8080 had ...

, etc. * Software for education * Games («Berkut», PopCorn, Stalker,

Dan Dare Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic series ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in ...

, Continental Circus, Deflector, «Treasure», «Winnie the Pooh», «

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

», Super Tetris, Karate, etc.)

Educational computer technology complex

"НИИСчётмаш" created an educational computer technology complex based on "Corvette". It includes a teacher's computer (ПК8020, with FDD, a

printer port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (parallel c ...

) and about 15 computers for students (ПК8010), connected to the

local network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of d ...

(19,5 kbit/s).

Variants

The Corvette has been mass-produced since 1987 at the plants of the Ministry of Radio Technology:Пользователям о «Корвете»
Журнал «Радио» № 1/1989 г., стр.29–32 Terminal-BK-8T

Production

Even though the Corvette was created in a fairly short time and the decision to produce a new computer was approved by the Council of Ministers, the start of mass production was delayed.«Корвет» на мели, кто виноват?
Журнал «Радио» № 7/1988 г., стр.2–4 Even though the computer comprised components already well within the capabilities of Soviet industry, timely scaling of production proved challenging due to the subpar quality of the supplied components. Compounding matters was the rivalry with another computer of similar purpose, the

UKNC UKNC () is a Soviet PDP-11-compatible educational micro computer, aimed at teaching school informatics courses. It is also known as Elektronika MS-0511. UKNC stands for Educational Computer by Scientific Centre. It was designed by the Scientific C ...

. As a result, the delivery of the new computer significantly lagged behind the projected timeline. After the collapse of the USSR, Corvette production stopped, and incomplete cases were used to assemble numerous

ZX Spectrum clones ZX may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Kamen Rider ZX (pronounced "Zed-Cross"), the tenth fictional superhero in the "Kamen Rider" franchise * ''Mega Man ZX'', a video game for the Nintendo DS * ''ZX Tunes'', remastered soundtracks of the "Meg ...

. "LINTech" (Laboratory of Information Technologies) carried out a modernization of the Corvette for use in schools, by recommendation of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

.О модернизации отечественных КУВТ «Корвет» и УКНЦ
— документ Минобразования РФ N 155/28 от 13 мая 1996 г. The network was modernized, with speed increased from 19.5 to 375

kb/s In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...

and an IBM PC-compatible computer was installed as the head machine

Links

Forum about educational computer technology complex «Corvette»

Emulator «Corvette» S. Erohin (Linux)

Emulator b2m, it can emulate the Corvette (Microsoft Windows)

Emulator emu80, it can emulate the Corvette (Linux, Microsoft Windows, MacOS)

About «Corvette»

«Corvette» description in the wiki Emuverse

«Corvette» characteristics

«Corvette» ПК8010 / ПК8020 and MSX2: additional tests («Corvette» PC8020 & MSX2)

PAINT: Korvet VS UKNC

Games and other programs for «Corvette»

References

{{reflist Computer-related introductions in 1987 8-bit computers Personal computers