[Coco] Considering new HD6309E based board

[David Ladd]

On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 5:35 PM, <nickma at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>
> Jim,
>
> I think you have a good idea and it is an angle that may not have been
> considered in the great "CoCo4" debate.
>
> Why should a CoCo4 be 6809 based?
>
> A 68000 based machine running OS9 68000 (OSK?) would be good. Faster
> and more capable. And the video chips you mentioned are powerful
> enough to duplicate the GIME's output.
>

As far as a OS-9/68K system goes the MM/1's were to fill this void, but
sadly didn't catch on as well as everyone had hoped.


>
> Duplicate you say?
>
> With a faster processor, more RAM and powerful video chip, it would be
> possible to run traditional CoCo 1/2/3 mode as emulation.
>

As far as emulation goes I had a program for OS-9/68K that would run some
console programs from OS-9/6x09, but couldn't handle all of the functions
that were in OS-9/6x09.
Most people now that want emulation just use their Windows, Mac, or linux
systems and use Mame, xroar, and VCC.


>
> A dual mode system!
>
> Food for thought or fa#ting in the wind?
>

I have a MM/1 and almost never use it anymore as most of the software I
really want to run now is the old Color Computer games and other programs
that weren't ported to OS-9/68K. So right now for Color Computer 2 stuff I
use xroar on my linux systems and VCC along with xroar on my Windows system.

Plus with DriveWire4 server and becker support makes it easier to use
xroar, VCC, and the CoCo3FPGA project.

My idea for a CoCo4 would have been a faster 6x09 system that would have
modes to switch speed for compatibility with older software. Then for the
GIME replace it with a re-programmable chip and allow for future upgrades
as needed for video, sound, ext. Then could use static RAM like Mark did
for the new 512K upgrade boards and do away with the need for refresh
timing.

As far as max RAM not sure what it would be if you were able to use all the
bits from the registers that were being used for bank switching on the
GIME, but I know there were some 2MB upgrade boards out there.  Thought I
heard somewhere of a experimental 8MB and 16MB boards, but I never saw them
myself.


>
> Nick
>
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