[Coco] Tcp off-loading on CoCo

[Lee Patterson]

What about an IRQ or FIRQ?

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www.8BitCoder.com

> On Apr 12, 2017, at 23:19, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
> 
> Ghosted across the two addresses, so you can do the 8 bit TFM on a 6309, or LDD on a 6809.
> (Like Bruce Isted/Frank Hogg Labs Eliminator card did).
> 
> L. Curtis Boyle
> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
> 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 12, 2017, at 8:51 PM, Zippster <zippster278 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 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