[Coco] Tcp off-loading on CoCo

[Zippster]

For DMA in that fashion the CPU would be halted, so you wouldn’t be able to do other stuff,
and you may lose track of any timing.

I think you’d pretty much want an MCU on the cart handling everything, buffering the data,
and making it available to the coco through a couple of addresses (two-byte data port).

- Ed


> On Apr 12, 2017, at 8:41 PM, Lee Patterson <lee at 8bitcoder.com> wrote:
> 
> So I’ve been trying to think about what the Coco would want to use networking for. And how to accomplish it. I would agree that the practicality of running a browser on the coco would be pretty much a no go, but a connection to a BBS type site would be feasible. Games would be the other huge user. And then there is an internet joystick and perhaps an drivewire on someone else’s machine? Personally the game idea is what I’m focused on.
> 
> I think these requirements would float my boat: 
> - If there was a cartridge I could plug in that would in turn connect to my local network via wifi.
> - When the cart is the active cartridge, a small UI for logging into the network would be provided.
> - Coco can write bytes to the cartridge to tell it where to connect to, then buffer bytes it reads back from network connection.
> - Perhaps provide an interrupt that the coco would receive when data comes in. 
> - Can the cartridge read the Coco’s memory on it’s own while the coco is doing other stuff? Maybe that’s the DMA I have heard about?
> 
> Lee
> 
> 
> 
> On 4/12/17, 6:50 PM, "Coco on behalf of Mark D. Overholser" <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com on behalf of marko555.os2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>    On 12-Apr-17 11:06, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>> There are options like the "Adafruit Feather M0 WiFi - ATSAMD21 +
>> ATWINC1500":  https://www.adafruit.com/product/3010
>> 
>> That is only one example.. I've used a few variations on this theme of
>> "some arduino compatible processor" + "some wifi chip".   This one
>> does support TLS, SSL, and afaik all the modern things.
>> 
>> Since all of these boards are (mostly) compatible via open source
>> libraries etc, the same control software would work on several
>> devices, maybe with small changes but most of this is abstracted out
>> by networking and serial I/o libraries etc.
>> 
>> You could implement a standard (or non standard, if it helps) serial
>> port on a few IO pins and talk to the coco via bitbanger, or better
>> use SPI onto the coco bus somehow, or anything really.  Then you'd
>> have communication between whatever code you're running on the
>> arduino-like cpu and the coco, and the same processor can use network
>> library calls and do the SSL etc for you.
>> 
> 
>    Theoretically, a Microcontroller with SPI and I2C Support could be 
>    connected to the CoCo's Data and Address Bus, and act as a Smart Device.
> 
>> I don't know where you (or anyone lol :) draws the line between whats
>> a network card and whats another computer, but the arduino + network
>> chip idea would be instant on, or very nearly.  Plus it wouldn't tie
>> you to one chipset or board... still kind of one "family" but there
>> are options at least.
>> 
> 
>    Very True...
> 
>> $0.02
>> -Aaron
> 
> 
> 
>    I am interested in Networking older 8-bit Computers, so as to make 
>    Networked Games..  Currently I am working on getting the CoCo Bit-Banger 
>    Port working with a Lantronix UDS-10..
> 
> 
>    MarkO
> 
> 
> 
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