[Coco] Retro computer, somewhat similar to CC1/MC-10.

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Daren

>From the pictures on the web, the large chip to the right is the ezVGA chip 
which is a Xilinx XC9572 in an 84 pin PLCC. The smaller chip below it is 
the 128kx8 chip is a TSSOPII package.

The rest of the chips deal with sound and the main microprossor. My guess 
is a  PIC or AVR or something in that nature. Also the resources CD that 
comes with it may contain the Basic compiler that compiles down to an I-
code that runs with the internal runtime library. 

james

On 3 Nov 2008 at 11:20, Darren A wrote:

> This is probably an FPGA running a "custom" processor design. They
> don't have any kind of information on how to program it other than by
> using the BASIC interpreter. The BASIC has some serious limitations:
> 
> Only single-character variable names
> Program lines and strings are limited to 79 characters
> Single dimensioned arrays with a maximum of 256 elements
> No ELSE clauses in IF THEN statements
> Cannot use a varibale name in NEXT to override nesting
> 
> On the plus side, it allows expressions in GOTO and GOSUB statements
> and appears to support 24-bit integers in addition to 32-bit floating
> point numbers.
> 
> Darren
> 
> ---
> 
> On 11/3/08, Frank Swygert wrote:
> > Anyone seen one of these things: http://www.multilabs.net/Retro.html
> > It's a 32K built-in BASIC computer with a native 40 x 30 Text
> > screen, 320 x 240 Pixel graphics, 64 Colors. Very reminiscent of the
> > CoCo 1! Well, maybe more like a more powerful MC-10. The only
> > removable storage is an 8 pin DIP socket for EEPROMs up to a 24LC512
> > (512K?). An SD card slot or some other more easily portable device
> > would have been better, but you can program the EEPROM and use the
> > thing as a controller, but then you could do that with an SD also.
> >
> > No mention of what processor is used, only that it's an 8-bit. BASIC
> > is a line number BASIC similar to Color BASIC, but I didn't look at
> > the manual enough to know how close.That and it's been ages since I
> > tried to program anything! There's some technical info in the manual
> > concerning the expansion port, maybe some of you more
> > hardware/technical types can figure something out by that.
> >
> 
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