[Coco] Checking/Testing a 68B09P

[Andrew]

All:

Yesterday, I picked up a set of 6809 40-pin DIP processors (from a local 
Phoenix electronic junkstore - Apache Reclamation and Electronics). I 
wondered if anyone could tell me whether they are worth keeping or not, 
plus if there was a way to test them without using a real CoCo?

Of the lot, I have 6 pieces of HD68B09P, and one MC68B09P (I also found 
a wierd floppy drive controller chip - FDC1795 - does anyone know 
anything about this - I found a datasheet, but I am wondering if it 
could be useful for building a more modern FDC board for an Altair I 
have sitting waiting for restoration?).

I found data sheets for all of these parts - so, for the 6809 pieces, 
they seem to be 1.5 MHz processors (B), plastic (P) - HD=Hitachi, 
MC=Motorola. The spec sheets seem to be for all 6809 products, and they 
say they are pin-compatible.

Unfortunately, none are of the 2 MHz variety for the CoCo 3...

They seem like they might make a good upgrade or replacement CPUs for 
the CoCo 2 (they may even work in a CoCo 3?) - however, I don't know 
what the condition of these chips are - they were stored on anti-static 
foam, but were contained in a large mix of "junk" parts. None were 
labeled as bad, but that doesn't mean anything.

Does anyone know how I could test these to verify that they work? I have 
both a Color Computer 2 and 3, but I don't want to smoke these units 
(they are my first computers from my youth - I try to take good care of 
them).

Is there any way I can build a simple perfboard test circuit that could 
tell me "likely good"/"likely bad"? The datasheets don't give a sample 
circuit (I suppose there is actually an "applications" datasheet or book 
for 6809 reference designs?). I suspect that the simplest test design 
might actually be quite involved - the 6809 is a microprocessor, after 
all, and not a microcontroller - so I can imagine a bit of support 
circuitry to be required.

I am not at a point where I can do this immediately, but knowing what to 
do when I can get around to it would help.

Thank you!

-- Andrew L. Ayers
    Glendale, Arizona