[Coco] CoCoNet status

[Torsten Dittel]

Tom Seagrove schrieb:
> My wording can get tangled up...I meant to ask if it will work under
> emulation on a PC the same way it works on the real coco...

I guess you're talking about the following scenario:

[Instead of connecting a real CoCo with CoCoNet-ROM via serial cable 
(CoCo: Bit Banger port) to PC (PC: RS-232 serial port) running CoCoNet 
PC-software], you want to run a CoCo emulator on the PC (with "virtual" 
CoCoNet ROM providing the new commands), and the CoCoNet PC-software on 
the same PC.

Sounds interesting.

However, is there any current CoCo emulator providing bit banger port 
emulation? I'm not aware of any (could be done using bi-directional 
parallel port I/O lines (difficult under Windows XP then) and an 
external MAX232-like circuit, but should be extremely timing critical 
with 115kb/s (I don't think any CoCo emulator's timing is accurate 
enough, even on the fastest PC and with a (hypothtically) interrupt-free 
OS). The emulated "Parallel Port Bit-Banger" would then be connected via 
Null-Modem cable to the same PC's serial port.

Another approach: CoCoNet would support an RS-232-Deluxe PAK (and the 
like, maybe even an ACIA supporting the 115kb/s) too, instead of the 
bit-banger port (would be anyway nice to have CoCoNet-ROM installed on a 
Deluxe-PAK for that purpose, replacing the original ROM). I darkly 
remember, there are CoCo emulators out emulating the Deluxe-PAK by 
routing the PAK's serial I/O to the PC's serial port. Then you could run 
all on the same PC like described above, using either a Null-Modem cable 
connecting  two PC serial ports, or even by a (to be done) virtual 
(cable-less) COM scenario, cross-linking two virtual serial COM ports 
under Windows.


Regards,
Torsten