[Coco] new products - pre-announcement

[Chuck Youse]

Well folks, I've been busy doing rather than talking.  Next week I'll be
putting up a web site at http://www.retroengineering.com where I will
display my newest creations, complete with schematics, layouts, theory
of operation, data sheets for ICs used, software drivers, etc.  They
will be offered for sale (with warranties and support) for those who
wish to buy them, but everyone will be welcome to build their own from
the information on the site -- I will even give assistance as my
schedule allows -- provided that you do not engage in profit-making from
it.  My intent is really to have some fun, provide a means for those
without the requisite time, skills or equipment to get their hands on
some of these things easily, and maybe make a few bucks to offset the
investment of time and development costs.

Four main I/O boards for the Coco are already on their way to the fab
house and will be back by the end of September:

1. The COCO HDISK - nothing exciting, a simple hard disk controller.  I
will sell these as bundled systems for NitrOS-9 complete with hard drive
in an external case, pre-installed with NitrOS-9.  ROM on board boots
NitrOS-9 from hard disk (no floppy required -- you can even leave the
floppy drivers out of your cobbled NitrOS-9 build).  Expected
availability: Oct 1 2008.

2. The COCO FDC - this is my (revised) high-density no-halt floppy
controller, for use with NitrOS-9.  Boots NitrOS-9 from 3.5"
high-density 1.44M floppy -- not for use with RS-DOS.  Comes as a
package with controller and 3.5" drive in external case.  Expected
availability: Oct 15 2008. (Note: I don't expect much interest in this,
so the production run is small.  I.e., a limited quantity will be
available.)

3. The COCO SSP - this is a board with a 16C552 on it, essentially, two
buffered (FIFO) UARTs and a PC-style parallel port for driving a printer
or external EEPROM programmer, etc.  With NitrOS-9 drivers and example
machine code for use with RS-DOS.  Expected availability: Oct 15 2008.
(I will be employing this card to put up a two-user BBS on my "main"
Coco.  Internet-accessible through Cisco async magic.)

and last, but not least,

4. The COCO NET - 10baseT ethernet for your CoCo.  Yes, it's finally
here.  With sample software for NitrOS-9 and Microsoft BASIC, in the
form of a simple web server and a TFTP client for transferring files
over IP.  If time allows I may write a full-blown stack for NitrOS-9; no
promises.  Expected availability: sometime in November.  (This was the
most time-consuming, not because the design was terribly difficult --
though it did have some gotchas -- but mostly because it had to be
hand-routed to deal with trace matching and differential impedance
considerations.  It may not work out on the first spin, hence the vague
date.)

Stay tuned for more details -- I'll let you know when more information
is available on retroengineering.com.  (I'm just waiting for the
significant-other to work her CSS magic.  I don't do web.  At least, not
prettily.)  Until then, feel free to drop me a line if something piques
your interest, or if you have any comments.

Go go gadget Coco,
C.

PS By the way, all of these, except for the high-density floppy
controller, will work on Coco 1/2 as well.  (The floppy controller will
work, but only in double-density mode.)  Most of these cards are
infinitely more useful with a multi-pak, of course!  And I have a few
more things in the pipeline, but this is the initial line-up.