[Coco] Re: Banked switched roms

[David Hazelton]

Bruce Calkins wrote:
> This sounds like the J & R Banker, A 128k or 256k ram upgrade for the CoCo 1
> and 2.  It needed a patch for OS-9 which is not available yet (if ever?) for
> the nitrOS9 project.  A neat toy but, little serious software exists for it.
> 
> Bruce W.
> 
> 
> 
>>Looking at the Feb. 1986 Rainbow I see a article about
>>the Banker.  Was this a 16K cartridge?  Just skimming
>>the article, did this ram disk use banking like the games
>>above?
>>
>>John Collyer
> 
> 
> 
I have a J & R Banker board in my CoCo I which I haven't turned on in 
years (decades) anyways mine had 512k.  It sure made OS9 Level 1 fly, 
since the first thing it did was iniz the drive (maybe format) then move 
my cmd directory over to it.  My CoCo3 w/128k was a real disappointment 
at first.
IIRC there was a BASIC Demo program that would switch Banks in and out 
under RS-BASIC, Moving graphic screens in and out.  Nothing like that 
under OS9.
On the CoCo3 slightly modified, 2 MB is the standard upgrade since that 
is the limit of the GIME addressing.  I believe it is built into nitrOS9 
(My CoCo3 is not running and I do not have 2 MB, but 512k).  There is no 
programs that I am aware of that demand over the Tandy maximum Standard 
of 512k.  So other than a Ram drive I'm not sure what use 64MB would be 
under OS9.

Thinking out loud.... If nitrOS9 V3 swapped certain modules/drivers in 
and out of the system space, things not used..RBF vs SCF 
devices/modules, maybe pushing and popping from external RAM complete 
system maps on the fly would work, with a 50MB Ram drive.  (It will take 
a long time to mirror my old MFM drive to the Ram drive though)

~David Hazelton