[Coco] FPGA the future of coco?

Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus) retrocanada76 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 12 20:53:30 EDT 2014


cheap yes but would it be a lot funnier ?

i already have a coco3

Luis Felipe Antoniosi



On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 6:52 PM, Nick Marentes <nickma2 at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:

> It would be a lot cheaper and quicker to just get a CoCo3 on ebay.
>
> Nick
>
>
> On 10/09/2014 6:52 AM, camillus.b.58 at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> In others words, you just want to get a coco3
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from Surface
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Retro Canada
>> Sent: ‎Monday‎, ‎September‎ ‎8‎, ‎2014 ‎5‎:‎11‎ ‎PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> imo upgrading a coco3 would be pointles as no new software would be made.
>>
>> but installing a coco3 upgrade kit into a dragon or coco1 that would take
>> my interest. for this we would have to remove the SAM, VDG and RAMs and
>> make the fgpa take ownership, of course vga output.
>>
>> the op-amp also need to be replaced.
>>
>> On Sep 8, 2014, at 4:41 PM, <camillus.b.58 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi, to all coco enthusiasts, and specially to the FPGA guru’s among them.
>>
>>
>> I have a question or maybe a suggestion, in the aim of preserve the old
>> coco’s I,II,II and as an idea toward a coco IV.
>>
>>
>> Many ideas are brought forward to make  a new coco, with better
>> performance, better video ( High Res and VGA) and also with more and faster
>> Memory.
>>
>>
>> Now  I’m not a genius with electronics and have no experience with FPGA
>> then what I red in books, I do wonder what the possibility is to make a
>> FPGA that combine all the things we need. I was thinking if it would be
>> possible, affordable and doable, to have a FPGA programmed to emulate the
>> following items:
>>
>>
>> 1 or more Extra cpu cores Hitachi or Motorola
>>
>>
>> All needed RAM 1,2,3,4,5 Meg and Higher
>>
>>
>> VGA for LCD support with all modes Coco Modes, 800x600, 1024*724, etc.
>>
>>
>> sound chips for better( Hi FI and (cd quality )performance
>>
>>
>> Ethernet, wireless, USB, Parallel IO, Serial IO, I2c, Can, etc.
>>
>>
>> Ps2 keyboard, pc compatible Joysticks, touch screen support
>>
>>
>> SD card, SSD, SATA HD
>>
>>
>>
>> This is what I could think of right now. I know it would maybe better to
>> design a complete new computer, but I think that would make the older coco
>> more obsolete. Adding this features in the form of a FPGA would keep the
>> coco alive and more suitable to run along with the modern IT age.
>>
>>
>> There are many tech among you who can do this with each taking a part of
>> the development for this project.
>>
>> One or two coordinators to   guide the project could follow up this team.
>> Others who have not so much brains to do tech stuff, can help in writing
>> manuals, maybe imputing code, or if they have a pc they can give computer
>> time and storage in a client/server/cluster way.
>>
>>
>> I also know that this can cost money, but I'm willing to spend $25/ month
>> to sponsor this, if just 100 people can do the same we would have $3000 in
>> a year.
>>
>>
>> I would like to open a think tank ( Google or Facebook group ) for those
>> who would like to participate in this, and do serious thinking about a
>> project like this.
>>
>>
>> There are great minds out there who already developed parts of the
>> features in the list above, so now it is just a matter of working
>> together.  Also for the commercial developers like cloud9 and others, there
>> can be participation, in that what would be doable to integrate in the FPGA
>> or making external plug in devices, so there is some gain in this for the
>> ones that develop for living.  What I mean by this is that if it would be
>> easier to design a SD-Card  controller then having more cost to implement
>> this in a FPGA then the favor goes to the controller. The user has to
>> purchase this option then by himself.
>>
>>
>> If there is already a group with same thoughts then I would like to hear
>> from it. I also know that Mr. Becker had a project in mind but could not
>> found the sources for it, but that was a complete new FPGA based design I
>> thought.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hope someone can see something in this and start thinking….LOL
>>
>>
>> Camillus Blockx  ( please when reply, send cc to my email:
>>  Camillus.b.58 at gmail.com with subject “CocoFpgaThoughts”   ( at = @ )
>>
>>
>> Thank you all
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from Windows Mail
>>
>>
>
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