[Coco] CoCo4! 50% done!

[Aaron Wolfe]

Its interesting, but I'm not sure compelling.  Some hardware features
are nicer than the CoCo3FPGA / Altera DE-1 FPGA solution, but not mind
blowingly nicer, and the cost is relatively high.   The DE-1 also has
the advantage of being supported by lots of different implementations
(CoCo, Amiga, Apple II, Amstrad, IBM PC-XT, probably others I never
tried).

I think things are moving towards an FPGA board that is very cheap and
more "standardized", and we will see a common platform emerge that is
targeted by lots of "retro" computing systems.  We aren't quite there
yet IMHO, but these types of boards show that we are not far away.


A related concept that I think would make sense to think about even
before an obvious "winner" in the FPGA space emerges is I/O.. how do
we connect retro peripherals to a retro FPGA system?  I've talked with
various coconuts who know hardware better than I do about this and one
idea that makes a lot of sense to me is a standard "CoCo I/O dongle"
thing..  imagine a standalone device that had the same I/O connections
that are found on a CoCo, with everything tied to a USB (or...
something?) interface.

Here is my "concept 1.0" design (let this also serve as evidence that
I should not be allowed anywhere near an actual design):

http://i.imgur.com/MGe1nSe.png

You could connect this to a PC running an emulator or to FPGA boards
,etc.  By decoupling the I/O from any specific host system you avoid
committing to a single FPGA board and expand the potential user base
massively by including emulators.  Host hardware will almost certainly
change, but coco I/O won't, so by breaking the tie between them you
gain much.

Obviously the implementation would require some serious hardware
knowhow, but the impression I've gotten is that it would probably be
possible.

-Aaron

On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 11:14 PM,  <nickma at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> Ok, cool down. It's not quite what you think.   :)
>
> I was looking at the MIST FPGA system. An Atari ST/Amiga 500 FPGA
> system and I was wondering if the board, which is available for
> purchase, could be reprogrammed to be a CoCo3 and maybe become a
> CoCo4?
>
> The hardware is complete, the entire board is done and could be made
> to fit in a CoCo3 case. All that is needed is to reprogram the FPGA.
>
> Is this a more achievable "next gen" CoCo?
>
> Here is the URL:   http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=96
>
> Nick
>
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