[Coco] CC-Five (was Re: Pseudo CoCo4???) (LONG)

[Mike Pepe]

Joel Ewy wrote:

> What about including a controller that would look to the CoCo like a WD
> FDC, but which actually works with CoCo disk images on removable flash
> media, such as MMC or CF?  The hardware could include a way to select
> from multiple disk images via an external 3.5" form factor control
> panel, perhaps with a 3-digit 7-segment display, and also an extra
> internal register that new software could use to do the same
> programmatically.  This would work with existing DECB and all other
> current software, but could provide a much more reliable, convenient,
> and compact removable mass-storage system.  Also, if the embedded
> microcontroller can manage its CoCo image files on a FAT filesystem on
> the flash drive, it also becomes a very convenient way to transfer files
> between the PC and CoCo.  If the microcontroller core was sufficiently
> similar to a real controller, these things could also be made as
> stand-alone units for older CoCos, and they'd remain compatible.

That's a really great idea, but I'm thinking all the external hardware 
to control that pseudo-floppy is expensive. Wouldn't it be cool if the 
CPU core had an alternate register set and memory space? Like a 
user/supervisor mode- you hit a hotkey and the normal processing is 
suspended, you get an on-screen menu to mount/unmount floppy images with 
names and descriptions (instead of a number on an LED display) then you 
can just resume normal operation. Kind of like how MESS works. It would 
probably be less costly from a hardware perspective I would assume.