[Coco] The Definitive Post on the CC-Five ;)

[farna at att.net]

james wrote:

Frank
I think it is alright to sound off ideas. What will be needed is a collection of the ideas 
and a prioritization of them in implementation. The first step I need to do is 
finish a first 
pass GIME specification/design documant that I can do in the first pass. My 
intentions 
are to make the first pass as compatible as I can with the existig GIME with 
some minor 
improvements. In other words kind of walk before I run wild. 

------------

I understand completely! The spec/design document can be used for both emulator
and FPGA work. I bet there are a lot of CC3 programmers that would love to have
it for the existing software as well! 

No matter what you do, it would be nice to make the emulator and an upgraded
FPGA machine software compatible. Wouldn't help hardware, but would certainly
help on the software front! 

Someone mentioned that having a machine that was distinct from a PC was a plus.
I agree, but I'm practical enough to know it just may not be feasible. But
there are ways around that while still taking advantage of the ubiquity of PC
hardware. There are micro ATX boards (9.6" square), mini-ITX (6.7" square),
nano-ITX (4.7" square), and PC104 (~3.75" square) form factor P-III (or 
equivalent) based boards. Any of these could be packaged to look significantly
different. I suggest leaving packaging up to the user though -- the packaging
is usually a major expense! If a board with integrated video is used, there's
no need for any add-on cards. Since the limitations of the machine (virtual
or FPGA) will be well below any PC video card capabilites with no need to
even meet them (programming limitations in other areas would also limit
video), what need is there for anything in an expansion slot? An integrated
board will already have all necessary I/O. That would make packaging into
a "different" case easy! I know you've all seen a lot of the custom PC 
mods now -- you can stick a modern PC board in anything! 


--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
(free download available!)