[Coco] The Tri-Annual CoCo 4 Thread

[Michael Robinson]

On Wed, 2014-02-12 at 23:44 -0500, Louis Ciotti wrote:
> You do also realize how many lines of code it would take to implement all of the items on your list here?
> 
> It is good to dream big, but what you describe here is a PC with a BASIC interpreter.
> 
> 
> On Feb 12, 2014, at 11:17 PM, Michael Robinson <deemcr at robinson-west.com> wrote:
> 
Well, would a COCO clone take off if it wasn't essentially a PC with a
basic interpreter?  I am not describing a PC per se as I am not
suggesting an IA32 processor, but an enhanced version of the 6809E and
the GIME.  Unless running Nitros9 makes a COCO a PC technically ;-)  

Name a present day computer that emphasizes programming the way the
color computer did.  Consider that Chromebooks are sub $200, a COCO 4
needs to be equivalent at least to a Chromebook in order to succeed in
the market place.

As far as ethernet, I thought one could get an expansion pak that
provided ethernet.  I know that modems were made for the cartridge 
port.  In principal, a COCO 3 can be outfitted for an ethernet 
network.

There seems to be a lot of angst concerning the COCO 4 topic and where 
I have added to that I apologize.  A COCO 3 clone can be made using
perhaps 8 bit PIC micro controllers.  A 4 Mhz version of the COCO 3
should be a lot easier to do than say an 800 Mhz version.  I suppose 
an 8 bit computer should be able to address 256 megs of ram which is
really a lot of memory for an 8 bit computer.

I'm being accused of dreaming too big, but why?  Who does it really hurt
if someone really goes for it and tries to modernize the COCO?  I would
like to see hardware diversity come back to the computer industry.
There aren't enough different kinds of computers based on truly
different hardware and software designs.