[Coco] Sneak peek

[Mark Marlette]

Roger,

Ah  see your point of view now. Thanks for the explanation of what ROM you are using. 

I am pretty sure you didn't do the hardware design or lay the board out. Not picking on you but I can tell in some of your posts you are not a hardware guy.

Not James but james. Anyone that follows this list knows EXACTLY whom I am referring to.

I would tend to disagree with you on the statement of: ACIA or UART the CoCo loves best, and that would be the 6551. Believe me, the CoCo would LOVE a bigger buffer, so would the host!!

The Atmel design work I am doing can cause a 3.2GHZ Dual core, blah, blah laptop to loose data if I don't invoke hardware handshaking at 230.4Kbaud. If the PC doesn't do anything else all is fine but if I start to run some REALLY big hardware compilers and push the performance of the machine, the PC can't keep up with a $8 chip.

All is fun though.

Regards,

Mark
Cloud-9

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Taylor" <operator at coco3.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 11:19:13 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: [Coco] Sneak peek

At 06:35 AM 2/14/2009, you wrote:
>Roger,
>
>You know I love hardware, so I took a real close up look.
>I am a bit confused.



>Your web site shows the CoCoNet pak but yet you are using a RS232 pak. ??

Nope.  The picture on the site shows EXACTLY the pak that I'm talking 
about which is not a Tandy Deluxe RS-232 Pak or any other Tandy pak, 
but it works like a Tandy pak because of the 6551 and where it's 
mapped in.  It's a simple design as you can see even from the scaled 
down image.

My pak has an EPROM socket and I can put a copy of the RS-232 Pak's 
software on that EPROM and run my pak "as an RS-232 pak clone".



>It appears from the pak in the picture, the Blue tooth device module 
>is in the upper left portion of the pak?

 From the angle the pak was shot, yes, the module is right where you 
said it is.  :)




>I admit I haven't followed the 6551 Hidden mode thread(s) that have 
>occurred in the past. Unless you are making a crystal change, how 
>would the RS232 pak not know how to use the hidden 115200 bps mode? 
>Then it really would be that it didn't know, it just that it 
>couldn't adjust the baud rate generator circuit to the numbers you 
>placed in the register. ????

No crystal change.  Because my pak CAN USE the original Tandy Pak's 
ROM software,  that software CANNOT switch to the 115200 bps mode, 
unless I'm low on coffee again or suffering from a lack of 
sleep.  So, let me restate that For Testing Purposes, the RS-232 
Pak's ROM was the first thing ran in my pak, and all was well.  The 
"CoCo never knew the difference".


>Can you further explain in detail?

It's a drop-in replacement for the Tandy Deluxe RS-232 Pak, only 
wireless.  No 12V is needed.  Any CoCo out there can use this pak.


>Who did the hardware design for you? Is this james's work?

Are you absolutely sure I didn't do it?  James, who?


>As each designer can select what ever chip set they would like. 
>Curious on why you selected a 6551 vs a newer chip set that would 
>have a larger built in FIFO?

For "transparency" with existing CoCo software.  Plus, if you combine 
all of the ideas I had into one little ACIA pak, it all comes down to 
software, Mark.  This leaves whatever ACIA or UART the CoCo loves 
best, and that would be the 6551.


-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com


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