Corvette (computer)
Graphics. This computer had advanced graphic capabilities for its time. It has only one video mode which uses 4 planes: 3 graphic and 1 text. The graphic planes have 512x256 resolution. The text plane is capable to show 32x16 or 64x16 text using two sets of 256 ROM 8x16 characters for both modes. It possible to show 16 colors on screen. 8 colors are free and 8 additional colors can be used combining text symbols and pixels. Any logical color may be any physical color from 0 to 15 (RGBI). The graphic video RAM size is 192 KB  (4 pages) or 48 KB (1 page). The text video RAM size is 1 KB which is 9-bit static RAM. There is no contention for access to video and processor RAM. The Corvette has a way to accelerate filling an area with a given color. It could be faster than the IBM PC AT with the EGA card for this task. Sound. The Intel 8253 is used to generate sound. 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) and about 15  computers for students (ПК8010), connected to the local network (19,5 kbit/s). Variants. It has been mass-produced since 1987 year at the plants of the Ministry of Radio Technology (Soviet Union): Production. Even though this PC 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 the mass production was delayed. Although the computer consisted exclusively of components already mastered by Soviet industry, it was not possible to increase production volumes on time, and the supplied components were of very poor quality. In addition , there was a competition with another computer of the same purpose.: UKNC. As a result, deliveries of the new computer were far behind the plan.: After the collapse of the USSR, the production of Corvettes stopped, and incomplete cases were used to assemble numerous ZX Spectrum clones. "LINTech" ("Laboratory of Information Technologies") carried out the modernization of the "Corvette" - the network was modernized and an IBM PC-compatible computer was installed as the head machine. Network speed increased from 19.5 kilobits / sec to 375 kilobits / sec. This revision was recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for  use in schools.