[Coco] Why do a next Gen CoCo? was Any news on the so called CoCo4 or NextCoCo

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Steve

Much of what I have invsioned is really there in the DE-2 board and maybe one or two other 
development boards except one key item. Size. Cost for me is not as major issue as others 
here have pointed out. Physical footprint is one. What I have an idea of is something slightly 
smaller the a half Eurocard and maybe upwards to about 2 or 3 inches in heigth.  A half 
Eurocard size is 80x100mm. What I have in mind is about 70x90mm. 

I want a COCO3 or even a COCO2 to be small, battery operated, and capable of using any 
type of display from a 16x2 character display to a VGA monitor. USB ports is also a need. 
Either serial/parallel FIFO to USB or even a actual USB interface. either ASIC or IP it really 
does not matter.  

A telescope can be controlled by a 2MHz COCO3 and using RSBASIC believe it or not. The 
basic roms in a COCO2 have all the math functions and accuracy for visual astronomy. a 
COCO3 has already been shown to do CNC control of a lathe or mill. I have a lathe that I 
would consider converting to CNC. But I sure as heck do not have the room for a large 
COCO3 to sit next to my lathe. 

Speed is not just clock speed. RSBASIC does a lot of math that I feel could be dumped off 
into a math coprocessor. I also feel that the GIME chip could be improved by adding a simple 
to moderate graphics processor to off load some of the software overhead that RSBASIC 
graphics commands have. These are perfect candidtes for a faster FPGA and still use a 
discrete 6309/6809 and clock at upwards to 3 or 4 MHz. 

So yes I want a faster COCO, but it does not have to be super fast. I want primarily a small 
compact COCO3 that if I want to hook to a modern VGA monitor I can. If I need to use a 
small 16x2 character display then fine. I need a core module that can be somewhat flexible 
yet not to flexible if that makes sense. But most of all I need it small and battery operation 
capable. I would like to use the Lithium Ion batteries if at all possible. A nice 3.5 or 7.2 V pack 
at about 1 to 2 amp/hr. 


just a few thoghts that may help you see where I am coming from. 

james
 
On 18 Nov 2010 at 14:50, Steve Bjork wrote:

> But you are putting the horse before the buggy, literally.
> 
> I don't hear is what you are planing to use this next gen CoCo for?  In 
> other words, what will use it for when you are done?
> 
> Are you trying to build a faster CoCo to run programs on?