[Coco] [Color Computer] RE: [CoCo] Atari and Amiga comparison

[L. Curtis Boyle]

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:12:00 -0600, Mike Pepe <lamune at doki-doki.net> wrote:

> Frank Pittel wrote:
>
>> I've often wondered what things would have been like if the coco had
>> been built around a 68000 unstead of a 6809.
>
> Or, better yet, if the 68000 were an extension of the 6809 architecture;  
> if it had powered up in 6809 "real mode" and then could have the 16/32  
> bit goodness switched on later.
>
> But, sadly, that didn't happen.
>
> -Mike
     I don't think they could have... weren't they designed around the same  
time (1979)? The 68000 was the new breakthrough, super chip, and the 6809  
was an expansion/extension of the successfull 6800 design.
    Now, if Tandy (or late, Frank Hogg Labs with the TC-9) only had known  
about Hitachi, we could have had a 3 MHz (minimum) 6309 based Coco 3. And  
with the sales Tandy had, I am sure Hitachi could have brought out  
official 4-5 MHz chips for sure, and possibly higher.

-- 
L. Curtis Boyle