[Coco] WordPak RS/CO80
Arthur Flexser
flexser at fiu.edu
Tue Jan 4 00:23:29 EST 2005
On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, Boisy Pitre wrote:
>
> There's more than just a base address difference. The co80 driver that
> I started with is very simplistic in what it does, and doesn't even
> begin to address the complexity that this card has when it comes to
> setting up.
>
> I did dig up something interesting about this driver in one of the
> Kissable OS-9 columns in the Rainbow. Puckett was writing about one of
> the Microware OS-9 expos in Des Moines, and one of the programmers
> talked about the CO80 module being written according to a specification
> that Tandy provided them, but with hardware that was in prototype
> stage.
>
> What a mystery...
>
In that case, my guess would be that Tandy was planning to come out with its own
80-column display at the time, and had a driver programmed according to its
specs and included with OS-9. Then, that device was scrapped in favor of
offering a version of the PBJ WordPak through its Express Order program (or
whatever that program was called, where you could get non-RS products at RS
stores by special order), and so the co80 driver actually drives no existing
device at all. I believe the WordPak-RS originally came with an OS-9 driver
on disk, though I'm not 100% certain. Somebody out there surely should have a
copy.
Art
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