[Coco] Turnkey hardware based CoCo Emulation - options?

[Mark McDougall]

On 30/03/2017 4:02 AM, John Lochey via Coco wrote:

> I don't have a lot of time to tinker these days, and would really
> like a turnkey, hardware dedicated solution for a CoCo2/3.  Something
> that might run on PI, or a similar system, that can be purchased.  It
> would be great to be able to have SD Card storage and HDMI and/or VGA
> support as well.

If you're after *strictly* hardware-based emulation, and by that I mean 
that the emulation is implemented in hardware (FPGA), not software (PC, 
Pi etc) then there are 2 options, both very much 'turnkey'.

One is Gary Becker's Coco3FPGA.

The other is Roger Taylor's Coco-On-A-Chip.

Both are FPGA-based, with similar but not identical 
features/specifications. It would be fair to say that Roger is more 
focused on enhancing the core Coco3 functionality with extra text, 
graphics modes etc, but both offer features like SD and some manner of 
networking. Both are mature projects but also WIP.

I'd suggest you do some Googling, there is a Yahoo Group for the former, 
and a FB group for the latter.

OTOH there has also been recent talk of getting together a 'standard' 
configuration for a Pi to boot straight into Coco emulation.

Which of these is more suited to your wants/budget only you can decide.

Regards,

-- 
Mark McDougall
<http://retroports.blogspot.com.au>