[Coco] The Coco3FPGA - Bringing the Color Computer 3 into the new Millenium!

[Frank Pittel]

Is it true that modifications need to be made to current DE1 boards  for
the coco3fpga to work on it?

On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Francis Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:

> Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 07:11:15 -0600
> From: Ron Klein <ron at kdomain.org>
>
> I used to think the same thing (real Coco 3 vs CoCo3FPGA) as far as the
> real hardware being a bit less expensive.  I can tell you, at least for me,
> it's not the case.
>
> I'm just using some price examples here:
>
> Coco 3 (128K)  $100
> Triad 512K RAM  $50
> Ed's 2 slot MPI  $80
> Orchestra 90 cartridge  $35
> RGB to VGA solution (various available)    $100
>
> If you don't want to add for a CoCoSDC (as comparible to the SD card slot
> on the CoCo3FPGA), Drivewire will save you a bunch so I'm not including a
> storage device cost.
> If you are a NitrOS9/OS-9 person, the extra RAM on the Analog board can't
> easily be matched for a real Coco 3, though I think there's discussions
> about Ed or possibly Jayeson offering something in the future.
>
> When going the CoCo3FPGA route, everything is new.  Thanks to Cloud-9, Ed
> and others you can get most hardware new when using a real Coco 3 ((other
> than the Coco 3 itself) so that's a plus.  In the end, going either route
> is expensive and I don't see any significant savings from one over the
> other.  There are always exceptions with great deals, but those are not
> always easy to come by.
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 07:58:06 -0600From: Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com
> >
>
> Few advantages?  Try 25 MHz and a new 640 x 450 256-color graphics mode
> for starters (there are more).  You won't get either of those with a
> 'real' CoCo 3.  I suppose it comes down to personal preference and
> whether you just want to stay stuck with the status quo of 1986.  At
> least the CoCo3FPGA gives a high degree of backward compatibility with a
> real CoCo 3 while giving the opportunity to explore and use some new
> features.
>
> And, by the way, the DE2 is not a 'currently produced' development
> board.  It has been discontinued by Terasic although both the DE1 and
> the DE2 are readily available on the used market.  I just sold a DE2 to
> a gentleman for $120 and I have sold DE1s for $90. Currently, the
> implementation on the DE2 is no different than on the DE1 so there would
> be no immediate benefit unless you plan on doing some additional
> development that would make use of a certain feature that the DE2 has
> but the DE1 does not.
>
> ===================================================
>
> Good point Ron. If getting everything from scratch there is actually a
> price
> advantage for the FPGA, and you get more for the money, really.
>
> Dave, I was talking about the advantage of an emulator over the FPGA.
> Both emulators and the FPGA unit have speed advantages over a "real" CoCo3.
> There are a couple things the FPGA does that aren't in the emulators, like
> the extra hi-res mode, at least as far as I know. Hope that gets corrected.
>
> I wasn't aware that the DE-2 had been discontinued. The Terasic website
> still
> lists a DE-1 as available for $150 ($127 academic) though. No DE-2 listed.
>  Frank Swygert
>  Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
>  803-604-6548
>
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