[Coco] Multi-Processor 6809 Computer System

[Mark McDougall]

On 1/05/2013 10:14 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:

> What is the difference between a COCO emulator and a COCO done
> in an FPGA? One is a software emulation and the other is a hard-
> ware emulation.  But they are both emulations and neither is a
> real COCO.

Of course without the original PCB and parts you won't ever have a 'REAL'
Coco, but an FPGA emulation offers the following over a software emulation:

* More accurate/authentic emulation; in theory you can actually clone the
original design down to the individual gate level - if the requisite
information was available (which it's not), but you can get pretty close
none-the-less

* You can design a PCB to fit into an existing Coco case

* You can design interfaces to real Coco peripherals, including the
keyboard, joysticks, cartridges, disk controller/drives etc.

IMHO software emulation certainly has its place - but doesn't give the
same experience as using a real Coco. At least something like the Coco-X
can give you a much more authentic experience... but of course it all
comes down to personal preference.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"