[Coco] CoCo4! 50% done!

[billg999 at cs.uofs.edu]

Where do I fnd the code need for my DE-1 (when it comes) to play
with this COCO3FPGA?

> A few minor corrections:
>
> The current CoCo3FPGA does include some enhancements beyond a stock
> Coco 3.  There are new graphics modes including higher color modes
> (256, 1024 or 4096? its been a while).  There is on board storage for
> ROMs and mechanisms for switching between them, and there is the
> "Becker port", a very high speed serial interface.   There is part of
> a fd500 floppy controller: to the CoCo it looks like a regular FDC but
> behind the scenes it speaks DriveWire.  I believe there is also an
> orchestra 90 card built in.
>
> Gary Becker did design I/O boards that included coco compatible
> connections for joysticks, a bitbanger serial port, additional ram,
> probably other stuff I'm forgetting.   It is pretty neat connecting an
> old RS joystick to a modern FPGA board and playing a game.  I think
> these were proof of concept, not something intended to be made in
> large numbers.
>
> One thing CoCo3FPGA does not have (unless it was added and I missed
> it) is support for the SD card.  As I recall, Gary said it would be
> possible to add direct r/w capabilities so that an OS9 driver could
> access it (if that driver was written) but that there really wasn't
> space in the FPGA for doing anything in DECB.  I very well could be
> out of date or just wrong on that though.
>
> Like I mentioned before, I think the project on the DE1 is more of a
> stepping stone than a destination.  The FPGA is just barely big enough
> and prevents some future things from being implemented, its not in a
> consumer friendly case, and the process to set it up etc is not plug
> in play.  In some ways the hardware to make the most of Gary's work on
> the software side doesn't quite exist yet.

If I can get into this I can see where I might be looking at a newer
and bigger FPGA in the real near future.

bill