[Coco] New Coco software and hardware

[Vincent Tran]

Thanks for the reply everyone.  There's some great development going on. I
can't wait to see/buy all the finished products!

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 2:25 AM, Kip Koon <computerdoc at sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi Vincent,
> Welcome to the CoCo List!  I thought I'd let you know what I'm up to
> lately.  I'm raising funds to go to this year's CoCoFEST to be held at
> Heron Point Inn in Lombard, IL by making available several PCBs.
> I have completed receiving confirmed orders for an RGB2VGA Converter PCB
> that mates with an Altera DE-0 Nano FPGA development board to convert 15KHZ
> VGA/RGB video to the current 31KHZ VGA video.  I do plan on offering more
> in the near future.  Details about the design can be found at the following
> link.
> <https://sites.google.com/site/tandycocoloco/rgb2vga>
> I have been also offering a Wordpak2+ 15KHZ Video Display Controller that
> can work along with the RGB2VGA Converter to enable the Wordpak2+ to
> connect to modern VGA monitors giving the user the capability of getting
> 80x24 text screens out of the Coco 1 & Coco 2.  Though the RS-DOS/NitrOS-9
> drivers for the WordPak2+ display 80x24 text screens only, drivers could be
> written by folks on this list to utilize the many text and graphic screen
> modes that the on-board Yamaha V9958 Video Display Generator chip on the
> Wordpak2+ has available.  Downloadable files can be found at the following
> link.  The Wordpak2p.zip file contains details and drivers for this card.
> <https://sites.google.com/site/tandycocoloco/dropbox>
> I am also in the process of finalizing details for an 8-Chip 6809/6309
> Single board Computer (SBC) I'm calling the Kipper SBC v1.  It is a great
> little PCB to begin learning 8-bit level microprocessor hardware
> interfacing.
> It has a 50-pin expansion connector implementing what I'm calling the
> Kipper Bus making it possible for the user to interface whatever they can
> imagine to the 6809/6309 microprocessors.  It is based on Grant Searle's 6
> Chip 6809 Computer and has 3 memory maps instead of the original single
> memory map of the original design by Grant.
> The 1st memory map gives the user 32KB of static ram with the possibility
> of having 40KB of ram total and 1 RS-232 Serial I/O port with no further
> I/O expansion possible.
> I didn't like the limitations of this original memory map so I designed in
> with the help of a friend a 2nd memory map to have the I/O moved up to the
> $C000-$CFFF range from the original $A000-$BFFF range giving the user
> address space for up to 48KB of ram.
> The I/O range is reduced from 8KB to 4KB of memory address locations and
> the Serial port is further decoded to $C000-$C3FF giving 3KB of open
> addresses for the user to utilize for more I/O devices.
> The Eprom address space is reduced from 16KB to 12KB still giving plenty
> of space for the original on-board 6809 Extended Basic Interpreter Grant
> Searle provided which is a modification of Extended Color Basic straight
> from the Coco 2.  The original Extended Color Basic has been modified
> extensively since this is a minimal 8-chip 6809/6309 computer therefore the
> color graphics, Coco Keyboard, sound, joysticks, and cassette functions
> have been removed because the hardware for those functions don't exist on
> the Kipper SBC v1 PCB.
> The 3rd memory map is I think the most interesting and versatile since it
> opens up the entire 64KB of addressable memory space to be used however the
> user wishes turning the Kipper SBC v1 in the Kipper CPU Board v1.  For
> details on the original 6-chip 6809 computer the Kipper SBC is based on the
> design detailed in the following link.
> <http://searle.hostei.com/grant/Multicomp/>
> I'm hoping to at least have a demo of the Kipper SBC v1 operational at the
> CoCoFEST.
> Here is a tentative rendering of the Front and Back of the PCB.
> <
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xv266jjnxle11b/Kipper%20SBC%20v1%20-%20Front.png?dl=0
> >
> <
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/2z3bvqbmufqroqg/Kipper%20SBC%20v1%20-%20Back.png?dl=0
> >
> I'm also offering a 512KB Static Memory upgrade PCB for the Coco 3 which
> runs very cool giving the user a full 512KB of ram for NitrOS-9 (an upgrade
> to the original OS-9) with over 400KB of usable memory to work with.  Here
> is a rendering of the Front & back of the PCB.
> <
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/sl69amixrb1k0y1/512KB%20Static%20Ram%20Memory%20Upgrade%20Final%20-%20Front.png?dl=0
> >
> <
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/7v3icr1t3rf3dfb/512KB%20Static%20Ram%20Memory%20Upgrade%20Final%20-%20Back.png?dl=0
> >
> The current order for the RGB2VGA converter is full and I'm completing
> work on the PCBs now.
> The Wordpak2+ PCBs are also in work at the moment as well.
> I'm accepting orders for the Kipper SBC v1 and the 512KB Static Memory
> upgrade PCBs now.  The prices are tentative at this point as I have not
> received any quotes from overseas PCB fabricators yet.
> If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I hope to update my wiki
> page soon with full details on the Kipper SBC v1 and the 512KB Static
> Memory upgrade PCB. Take care my friend.
>
> Kip Koon
> computerdoc at sc.rr.com
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Vincent
> Tran
> > Sent: Monday, April 06, 2015 2:22 PM
> > To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> > Subject: [Coco] New Coco software and hardware
> >
> > Hi all -- Can someone give me a list of all the latest hardware and
> > software being developed by this group?  I've been trying to gobble up
> > everything I can find for the Coco and just heard about Fahrfall.  I
> would
> > love to get a copy of Fahrfall if they're not all sold at CocoFest -
> which
> > I'm sure they will be.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Vince
> >
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>
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