[Coco] Multi-Processor 6809 Computer System

[Allen Huffman]

On Apr 30, 2013, at 9:11 PM, nickma at optusnet.com.au wrote:

> Unfortunately, 6809/6309 only go so fast, hense why I have suggested
> building one that does go faster and FPGA (or equivalent) to be a good
> option... if that's possible.

Not only possible, but already done. The 6809 core has been recreated and years ago, someone said that the core alone ran around 40mhz....? It's programmable hardware.

It's the GIME and other items that are harder and trickier to recreate because we don't have any of the real specs on them. They can only recreate from what we know, meaning SockMaster demos and tricks don't always work. But, unlike a hardware modernized GIME, the FPGA recreation can be tweaked via a firmware update and fix things as they learn more about it.

Kip Koon has a few 6809 breadboard computers he has put together. I think we might want to start with something like that, and see how fast of a 6809 single board computer could be created.

Someone did a breadboard 6809 and hacked Extended Color Basic to run on it via serial port (so no graphics)... What if we started with that, but built in some kind of graphics? It's not a CoCo yet, but... supporting joysticks and other items is fairly easy too...

The trick is -- what should be used for the 6809? What's the most cost effective way to get something that runs 6809 code blazing fast?

		-- A