[Coco] Re: Coco Repack

[Mark Marlette]

At 10:45 PM 8/6/2004 +0000, you wrote:

The 63B09 = 2MHZ, 63C09=3MHZ and 63D09=4MHZ.

James has quite a project just to do the GIME in a FPGA. Lets not overwhelm 
the project and make it not happen. The paragraph below is a HUGE task! 
Remember this is a hobby for most. To do the software, hardware and test 
takes quite some time. Better yet how many people would step forward and 
help out on it? How about put up the $$$ to buy one????? I have over $5k 
out on the SuperBoard project, that doesn't include my time. Love of the 
machine or stupidity...... :)

It is quite a simple task to make the memory map for the GIME, it is ALOT 
harder to perform all of the functions that is behind each bit. The MMU is 
simple as well. Interrupt and timer functions are a bit more complex and 
not documented the best. The video with all the compatibility modes is 
something else as well. No doubt something to be proud of, the GIME is the 
machine. I have been in direct contact with the creators of this beast and 
it is AMAZING to me that nobody has an internal document of it. I also do 
believe if they had it, I would have it as our conversations went.

Mark
Cloud-9


>IIIRC the 6309 is a 4 MHz part? I doubt it will run reliably after 6-8 
>MHz. Even then, it could vary between chips. If you put a 6309 in FPGA you 
>could drop some of the 6809 compatibility and possibly put in some new 
>code, but then you'd lose program compatibility. Not sure how much that 
>would affect NitrOS9 for the 6309 though. Still, if you do a CoCo repack 
>with the joystick ports and replace the bit banger with USB (or two...), 
>it would be a nice system. Wouldn't be 100% CoCo compatible once the ROMs 
>were in place, but would be close. Would be very nice if the DECB ROM 
>could be modified to use a USB floppy, and maybe HD. But DECB really 
>doesn't need a HD for experimental purposes. Some sort of mass storage 
>would be needed, maybe one of those USB "drives" would be easier to code 
>in the ROM, but you'd have to transfer code from a PC to run DECB 
>programs. The only reason I harp on DECB is the ease of programming for 
>experiments. Basic09 is more powerful, it has similarities t
>  o Pascal, but CoCo BASIC is so darned easy to learn that for simple 
> and/or quick experiments it would be preferred.
>
>
>--
>Frank Swygert
>Publisher, "American Independent
>Magazine" (AIM)
>*Elite* publication for those
>interested in all
>aspects of AMC
>history,performance,restoration,etc
>.
>(AMC,Rambler,Nash,Hudson,Jeep,etc.)
>http:farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
>(free download available!)
>
>
>
>-------------- Original message from coco-request at maltedmedia.com: 
>--------------
>
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 11:30:48 -0400
> > From: jdaggett at gate.net
> > Subject: Re: [Coco] Re: Coco Repack
> > To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> > Message-ID: <41136BE8.14904.E66F7 at localhost>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> >
> > Frank
> >
> > You are ringt if a FPGA version of the 6x09 were incorporated
> > along with an FPGA version of the GIME chip, breaking the 10 MHz
> > barrier will be no problem. Speed control can be done with external
> > clock ship. One by ICT can derive 1000's of frequencies from a
> > single crystal frequency. In fact the one chip that I was looking at,
> > from a 28.6868 MHz cyrstal I can derive over a 1000 different E
> > and Q Clocks for the CPU from 400 KHz to 19 MHz.
> >
> > My initial intent was to use a 6309 and my new GIME chip and j ust
> > see how fast I can over clock the 6309. I have two bytes resevered
> > in the memory map to address the clock PLL chip.
> >
> > Just keep pushing the clock until the chip stops.
> >
> > james
>
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