[Coco] CoCo3FPGA, FPGA Development, and GIME replacement

[Nick Marentes]

 > I don't think there will ever be a mass-produced,
 > shrink-wrapped Next Generation CoCo. But if there's enough interest, we
 > could very well see hobbyist-produced kits that make it pretty easy to
 > plug in one of the FPGA development boards, upload the CoCo3FPGA bit
 > file, and go.

I guess this what I'm afraid of. If there is no "shrink-wrapped next 
generation CoCo" but hobby-produced kits, will there be a "mish-mash" of 
different boards, each customized to a handful of user's specifications? 
Writing software will be a case of software that supports the feature of 
one board versus the other. Software may not utilize all the features of 
one board, instead supporting the most common set of functions.

This is not so bad, it's fun for the hardware hackers (the old 
definition of the term!) but it doesn't create a standard product that 
everyone else can use fully. And considering that such a product would 
probably be sold in small numbers ($200?), it may be something only for 
the few. It may not attract the software developer type, not that there 
are many left for the CoCo.   :(

In the end, I guess it's just a fun project for those few who are 
interested in FPGA/CPLD designs.