[Coco] TRS-80 Color Computer: Wikipedia Article

[David Linsley]

"was the SAM CoCo exclusive or stock Motorola?"

It was stock, though not easy to find for spare parts IMO! The Acorn Atom
was also released in 1980 and used it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC6847. Also
6502 based (like most of their early machines) there is some good info on
their 6809 work, including a comment that Roger (later Sophie) Wilson who
designed the ARM didn't like the slow clock speeds, here:
http://www.mdfs.net/Software/Tube/6809/Toal/CoPro1.htm

Cheers,
David.

On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 5:27 AM, Frank Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:

> Well, they would be a good bit cheaper once the 16 bit CPUs were out in
> force and production was up. By that time I bet the 6502 was no less than
> half the cost of a 6809, maybe no more than 25% less for singles. But the
> fact that it was ANY less would make a notable difference to a large scale
> production, especially since the handful of special support chips (PIAs and
> the VDG for the CoCo... and was the SAM CoCo exclusive or stock Motorola?)
> were likely a few cents more each as well. Even at $5 more total for each
> machine that's $5 less profit x thousands.
>
> An old Jameco or other supplier catalog (or Computer Shopper!) sure would
> come in handy now! I think I saved a couple old RS catalogs, but they
> wouldn't have market prices anyway.
> I checked my small cache of books I DID save, and found a 1986 BYTE
> magazine. Don't know why I saved it, but inside is a nice four page JDR
> Microdevices ad! 6809s were $5.95 each, 6502s were $2.79... just over half
> price!! That should put an end to THAT debate! Oddly, the support chips were
> all similarly priced for both processors. Maybe that's where MOS Technology
> made up for the processor price...
>
> ---------
> Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:01:22 -0500
> From: Arthur Flexser <flexser at fiu.edu>
>
> I remember having to replace my 6809 some years after I bought my CoCo, and
> being a bit surprised at how INexpensive it was--around 7 bucks or so from
> Jameco or some such company.  (And that was for quantity one--the price
> went
> down a lot if you ordered a whole bunch of them.)  That was probably
> sometime in the mid to late '80s.  If anybody has ancient issues of
> Computer
> Shopper lying around, that'd be where to find what the price was in a given
> year, and how it compared to a 6502.
>
> --
> Frank Swygert
> Publisher, "American Motors Cars" Magazine (AMC)
> For all AMC enthusiasts
> http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
> (free download available!)
>
>
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