[Coco] RE: [Color Computer] Looking for a Coco I 64k?

[Dave Dunfield]

>> I'd guess that the 32k machine/upgrade actually uses 64k chips and could operate
>> with 64k RAM (no ROM) however this capability was not acknowleged/advertised until
>> software (OS-9) was available which could use them. Can anyone confirm this?
>> 
>
>Yep, that's correct.  The only actual 32K CoCos were those 16K machines that
>were user-upgraded to 32K by the piggyback method.  (I had one for a while.)  
>It was rumored that Tandy used 64K chips that had only one bank certified as
>good, and that's why the early 64K machines were labeled as 32K, but this seems
>much less likely to me than a couple of alternate explanations:  (1) They didn't
>want to be bothered with users complaining that they could only access 32K under
>BASIC, and (2) It is in line with Tandy's general marketing strategy of
>promoting the CoCo as a kid's toy so as not to compete with their more expensive
>models, so under-describing its capabilities would be seen as desirable, at
>least until they were selling software that actually used 64K.  I never heard of
>anyone having to replace the RAMs in order to get 64K operation in a machine
>Tandy sold as 32K.

So ... after you purchased and installed the 64k upgrade in your 32k Coco, was it
actually any different than before you started (ie: did the upgrade include anything
other than 64k RAM chips?)

Regards,
Dave
-- 
dave04a (at)    Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot)  Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com             Collector of vintage computing equipment:
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