[Coco] CoCo emulation on a Compaq Internet Appliance?

[Joel Ewy]

Frank Swygert wrote:
> Hmmm... I didn't know there was a 16 and 32 bit! Vendors shouldn't use
> the two terms interchangeably, obviously, but they do. At least they
> could put in the specs whether it's 16 or 32 bit, but they all assume
> everyone is wanting the latest and greatest, they just don't care
> about us retro and "not quite cutting edge" kind of people. 
I totally agree.  It makes me mad every time I see something marketed as
PCMCIA when it's really Cardbus, because I see it and think it might
work in those old Compaq laptops, only to be disappointed.  It's quite
common, but it's not correct.  Fortunately I now have a (somewhat) newer
laptop that does have Cardbus, but I'd still like to be able to get
hardware that will work in the older ones.
> I can't afford cutting edge tech, so I get last year's model, off
> lease, or overstock stuff most of the time -- with occasional
> refurbished items. Just like cars -- I'd rather save a few years and
> pay cash for a 3-4 year old good condition one than pay top dollar for
> brand new! Did that once long ago, and when I went to trade it off for
> another it didn't make much difference, except in MY pocket!
>
Yup.
> Well, the stuff from CA Digital is older, off lease or NOS surplus, so
> it's most definitely 16 bit PCMCIA! The 2GB CF adapter doesn't have
> the gold stripe either, just the 8.1 GB hard drive.
> So these should be good:
>
> Here's a link for a CF card adapter -- $50 w/a 2GB CF card isn't bad:
>>> http://www.bixnet.com/5gbpcmcihard.html
>>>
I think you can do better than that though.  CompUSA has some PCMCIA CF
readers for $8.99 (they're SanDisk brand -- probably available elsewhere
as well.) 
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50220914&pfp=XSELLCUSTVW*
*They also have 2G CF cards for $20 (after rebate)
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=SEARCH&Ntt=compact+flash&N=0&Dx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&D=compact+flash&Ntk=All&product_code=335144

So you can get the same thing for $28.99 minus tax and shipping, and
after rebate.  I've picked up one of the PCMCIA CF adapters at a local
CompUSA store, so I didn't have to pay shipping.

Also, geeks.com has 2G CF cards for $25.75 (and $5.75 is almost not too
much to pay to avoid the hassle of a rebate), and a 1G CF card for
$14.50.  1G will still hold quite a bit of CoCo, even with DOS and
emulator.  But the real gem that they have right now is refurbished
Hitachi 4G microdrives for $17.99.  I just ordered one along with some
other parts.  I'd like to see how much more time I can get out of the
tired, old NiMh batteries in those old Compaq laptops by using a
Microdrive in an IDE CF adapter instead of a power hungry 2.5" hard
drive.  Plus, I can write swap to it without wearing it out prematurely,
unlike flash memories, which have limited write cycles.  I wish I could
afford to buy about four of them, but they'll probably be gone by the
time my computer budget can accommodate some more.  All their memory
card stuff, plus the Microdrive is here: 
http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=FLM
>>> Anyone remember California Digital? They have several PCMCIA storage
>>> cards. An interesting one is a battery powered S-RAM card -- 2MB for
>>> $59. http://www.cadigital.com/pcmcia.htm.
>
Looks interesting.  I always wished I could get a PCMCIA RAM disk card
to use for swap space.  Not flash memory, but SRAM or DRAM, about
64-128M.  Doesn't have to be battery-backed or anything -- just has to
be something that can be accessed by the system as a disk drive, but
preferably solid state, on which one could put a swap file.  I've even
thought about a DRAM card with a microcontroller and a SCSI or IDE
interface.  Something with no slow, power hungry disk heads to clang
around, which could add another couple hundred megs of virtual memory to
an old PC or 68K Mac that's maxed out on RAM.

JCE