[Coco] dreamin' again (was CoCo 3 FPGA?)

[Mark McDougall]

James Hrubik wrote:

> Just a couple of comments:
> 
> -1- The display is classic CoCo.  How hard would a video upgrade be?

Implementing enhanced video shouldn't be too difficult, but you'd have to 
work out how to shoe-horn the extra modes into the GIME without breaking 
Coco3 compatibility. And to be useful to the 'masses' you'd need support in 
ECB and NitrOS9...

> -2- Can e-net be slipped into that thingy?

Sure, there's IP stacks around that you could port to the Coco, if there 
aren't any already...

> -4- If it can be driven on cell phone batteries, could a fully portable 
> unit be far behind?  If so, what sort of possibilities for wireless?  A 
> wireless enabled CoCo running Nitros9 would be awesome for remote
> projects.

If you can do e-net, then wireless is simply adding another chipset to the 
board, with a driver.

If all pans out, some time in the next few weeks I should be receiving a 
board with a decent-sized FPGA, Flash, RAM, SD/MMC adapter, and QVGA LCD 
screen that runs on batteries. The whole unit is the size of the screen - 
something like 7 inches corner-to-corner. I'll need to add a PS2 keyboard 
interface to it, but that should be sufficient to run a Coco implementation.

If it all comes together and I can get a Coco running on it (either my WIP 
Coco1 or Gary's Coco3) I'll post pictures etc...

> -5- Do you realize how much of my time is going to be wasted dreaming 
> about this stuff?  <G>

I can guarantee that it's not nearly as much time as I waste on _playing_ 
with these !@#$%^&* things! ;)

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"