[Coco] [Color Computer] Re: 128 or 512?

[Mark Marlette]

Joel,

 From our testing at Cloud-9 North and South. We see no speed  
improvement for using a fast SCSI drive or a CF in the SuperIDE when  
compared to a RAM disk. Actually it is probably faster since you don't  
have to load the RAM disk.

This of course is using all of Boisy's drivers.

Mark
Cloud-9


Quoting Joel Ewy <jcewy at swbell.net>:

> I think there's some terminology confusion here.  Individual flash
> memory chips, like the ones used in a PC's BIOS, are certainly byte
> addressable (at least for reads).  But when flash memory is used in a
> Compact Flash card, there is additional circuitry (maybe on the chip,
> maybe in a separate chip?) that allows multiple megabytes to be accessed
> via an IDE-compatible interface, so you don't have to bring all those
> address lines out and have a 150-pin connector.
>
> The issue of limited writes is also important, so neither Compact Flash
> cards nor individual Flash ROM chips would be good candidates for
> interfacing with the CoCo as RAM.  Write speed is probably also slower
> than writing DRAM.  But using individual Flash ROMs to replace ROM-based
> software on the CoCo is certainly feasible, and really captures one of
> the best qualities of the CoCo (instant power-on availability) while
> eliminating the inflexibility of permanently fixing firmware in ROM.
> And of course Compact Flash cards on an IDE interface make good
> low-power, silent, small mass storage units.
>
> Oh, and FWIW, I have two 512K CoCo 3s and 1 128K.  Back when I ran
> Multi-Vue a lot that 512K came in very handy.  Having a nice big RAMdisk
> for temporary storage really sped up things like the C compiler.  I'd
> love to see more games that make better use of more than 128K.  And
> there'll still be plenty of stuff to run on the old 128K machine.
>
> JCE
>
> Roger Merchberger wrote:
>> Rumor has it that John W. Linville may have mentioned these words:
>>> On Thu, Mar 01, 2007 at 11:17:40AM -0500, Roger Merchberger wrote:
>>> > Rumor has it that John W. Linville may have mentioned these words:
>>> > >On Thu, Mar 01, 2007 at 06:42:31AM -0800, Jim Cox wrote:
>>> > >> Why James?  Would the issue be the limited writes of the
>>> > >> flash cards?
>>> > >
>>> > >Because CF cards are not byte-addressable?  They look like a hard
>>> > >drive, not memory.
>>> >
>>> > If I'm not mistaken (which I probably am) I *think* there's a mode
>>> that _on
>>> > reads_ CF cards can be byte-addressed, but I think they can only be
>>> written
>>> > by erasure & reprogramming in 32K or 64K chunks... but again, it's
>>> not like
>>> > the CF spec is bedtime reading to me... ;-)
>>>
>>> I really don't want to quibble over terminology here.  The point is,
>>> CF doesn't look like memory (i.e. LDA and STA don't work to read and
>>> write any single random byte on the card in any random order).  So,
>>> it wouldn't be appropriate to use it for a RAM card.
>>
>> I'm not trying to quibble, either, but what I was trying to say, is I
>> _think_ there's a read-only memory mapped mode -- so LDA's *would
>> work.* STAs wouldn't, as you'd have to "format" a block & then
>> reprogram the whole sucker, but I'm essentially saying that if written
>> correctly the first time, you could set it up as a memory-mapped ROM
>> and actually execute programs from it, just like any other form of
>> ROM. RAM "functionality," I believe, is outta the question, tho.
>>
>> Not sure what you'd do with a 16Meg removable SECB chip... but
>> technically, I think it'd be possible, and for a 1-off hacker-type
>> removable prototyping ROM station, might be kinda neat. "Useful" would
>> be an exercise best left up to the hacker, but neat nonetheless. ;-)
>>
>> Laterz,
>> Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>>
>> --
>> Roger "Merch" Merchberger  --  SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
>>  _±±_                          zmerch at 30below.com
>> (©||®)  If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
>>  _)(_   disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
>>
>>
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