[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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>