[Coco] Raspberry Pi as Virtual Floppy Disk???

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Jun 16, 2013 5:29 PM, "Nick Marentes" <nickma at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> > That is exactly what I hope the CoCo SDC will be.
> > It was previewed at the recent CoCoFEST.
> > Check out Allen Huffman's video and you can
> > catch a brief glimpse of the pak at the 2 minute mark:
>
> > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sshcYHuBnvc>
>
> > Darren
>
> That is EXACTLY what I have been after all these years!
>
> Any idea when it will be ready for purchase?
>
> Rasberry Pi and drivewire is good but apart from all the extra hardware
and power hanging off my CoCo, How long would I have to wait after the CoCo
has powered up in half a second till the Pi is booted and Drivewire server
is ready? Someone mentioned a minute?!!
>

It takes about a minute to launch the GUI on the Pi (most graphical
programs in the Pi take a similarly long time to get started).  However
there is no need to run the gui on the Pi.  The server starts up in a few
seconds.

Even better, there is no reason to reboot the Pi just because the CoCo is
reset or powered on.

My design would have the Pi boot up and start drivewire whenever the coco
was plugged into power.  It would simply boot and wait.  Drivewire has
mechanisms for knowing when the coco is turned on, reset, and when an OS
like nitros9 is booted up.  The Pi would always be on, always ready to
serve requests.

Except for the (presumably rare) times when you unplugged the coco from the
wall, it would be every bit as "instant on" any other CoCo.

> The CoCo SDC sounds like it upholds the beauty of of fast boot that is a
feature of these "retro" computers and that nowadays seems to be the latest
"new idea".
>
> Nick
>
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