[Coco] COCO DTV

jdaggett at gate.net jdaggett at gate.net
Fri Feb 16 07:58:32 EST 2007


Dan

At least a 6809 core could be dropped into the C-One. It is  still possible to use the C-One.  
The G-bridge in the 1K30 part  can be  used. Still doing all or amajor part of the GIME chip 
has to be done. 

The Altera parts, 1K30 and 1K100 are mature parts and have been in production for about 
ten years. These parts are 5 volt tolerant I/O and that is one of their strengths. 

The cost of the C-One is about 269 Euros or about $350 US. If you live outside Europe the 
VAT tax may get dropped so that would decrease the cost by about 16%. Still shipping from 
Europe to the US is  expensive and slow. Buying say the XSA-3S1000 with the XST-3 
boards comes to $398. The XSA-200 with the XST-3 extend board is also a solution  that 
comes in with a price tag of $298 US. Lower cost solutions are the Digilent Spartan 3 starter 
boards at $99 US and the Spartan 3E starter boards which start at $150 US. 

There is no one solution that is either cost effective or does everything that I want. The C-
One board does come close but it would force me to goto Altera tools. That is an open 
possibility. Right now I have the Digilent D2FT board with the I/O5  board. Already I have 
about $200 invested. For the Coco 3 I have dropped the I/O 5 board for my own daughter 
board. This will have the ram and other coco circuits. The D2FT  is basicaly a FPGA, 
regualtors and I/O pins and sells for $89US. It  uses a Spartan 2E 300K gate part and is 
plenty to do the Coco 3. 

james

On 15 Feb 2007 at 19:22, Dan Olson wrote:

> > Well spoken. I believe this explicitly states the issues and
> > probable paths that can be taken.
> >
> > So I progress onward with the FPGA design.
> 
> Call me crazy, but why create a new FPGA based computer when the C-one
> sounds like it's exactly the same idea?  Can't a CoCo core be written
> for the C-one board, saving re-inventing the wheel?  Assuming, that
> is, that things like a cartridge port and joystick ports could be
> added to the design.  Just a thought.
> 
>   Dan
> 
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