[Coco] new products - pre-announcement

[Jim Cox]

Wow!  Great going Chuck!

-Jim Cox
http://miba51.blogspot.com/

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 7:56 PM, Chuck Youse
<cyouse at serialtechnologies.com> wrote:

> 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.

>

>

>

>

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