[Coco] Multi-user CoCo BBS via telnet [WAS - Re: Are there any CoCo BBS's out there?]

[Rod Barnhart]

On 8/3/07, Joel Ewy <jcewy at swbell.net> wrote:
> Of course an FPGA CoCo running at 16MHz could have a very large number
> of UARTs or ACIAs implemented in its logic, and could support several
> users quite comfortably.  There your limiting factor could be available
> physical I/O lines (maybe not, I don't know how many of those are free
> for use on the development systems) and phone lines, modems, or RS-232
> <-> Ethernet adapters.  But I think one could put together a pretty
> spiffy NitrOS-9 BBS with an FPGA CoCo.
>
> JCE

Now I have an interesting dilemma. I'm not going to give up my only
CoCo3 for this project beyond getting it to actually work. After that,
I'll have to purchase additional hardware to dedicate to the project.
Should I go with real CoCo hardware, or with an FPGA CoCo? Learning
curve will be about the same for either, as I have no experience
designing serial cards for the CoCo (but am encouraged by others who
have done so in the past), nor with working with FPGA's. The cost of
real hardware might be a little higher, but which way has the bigger
coolness factor?

BTW, thanks to Richard Ivey for inspiring the idea of this project by
asking about dialup coco BBSes. Sorry the conversation was sorta
highjacked from there ;)


-- 
Rod Barnhart aka Wintermute (http://www.nitemarecafe.com)