[Coco] FPGA CoCo and video

[Aaron Wolfe]

(Apologies if this already went out, I think my recent messages to the
coco list have been lost due to an email address change on my end)


I think FPGA implementation is a great way to preserve and expand the
CoCo.  The CoCo is a great platform for learning and experimentation,
and the FPGA boards provide the same opportunities in a more modern
form.

There doesn't seem to be any reason real hardware like a standard CoCo
keyboard or MPI could not be connected.  Every FPGA board is different
but all I've read about provide dozens if not hundreds of I/O pins
that can be purposed as desired.  I would think that any of the CoCo's
I/O could be supported in some combination of adapters and
programming.

The really exciting part to me is the possibility of taking the CoCo
environment to new places.  The FPGA implementation means that all of
the hardware in the CoCo can be accelerated in sync.  Watching the
FPGA CoCo run BASIC programs at 16+Mhz is incredible.  Higher speeds,
disk basic and OS-9 are already possible with other boards (Gary has
25Mhz operation on some).  The FPGA boards also open the door to
enhancements in the original CoCo hardware.  We could add new video
modes to the GIME, or some new instructions to the 6x09, or support
for USB and ethernet, or a thousand more things I can't even imagine
yet.

The cost/performance ratio of these FPGA boards will continue to
improve over time.  It seems likely that a sub $100 board will exist
"someday" (and it probably will outperform anything we have today by a
factor of 10+).  Perhaps a board that fits into the CoCo case and
provides the same connectors could be made economically at some point
as well.

Gary Becker has also implemented DriveWire directly in the FPGA board,
using a second processor that presents what appears to be standard
hardware (FD501, 6551, etc) to the CoCo and translates operations into
the DriveWire protocol.  This removes the limitations of the bit
banger and allows DriveWire to use very high speed, interrupt driven
mechanisms for communication with the server.  A 25Mhz NitrOS-9
machine that has internet connectivity at broadband speeds is close to
reality thanks to his hard work.  It is an exciting thing to see!



On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:11 AM, Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:
> My www.YouTube.com/allenhuffman channel has two unedited clips I posted last night. The fpga coco and the coco video player.
>
> More coming soon.
>
> Sent from my iPhone 3GS
>
>
> On May 17, 2010, at 9:00 AM, coco-request at maltedmedia.com wrote:
>
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>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   1. latest DW3 NitrOS-9 6809 L2 modules (Roger Taylor)
>>   2. Re: latest DW3 NitrOS-9 6809 L2 modules (Roger Taylor)
>>   3. CoCoFEST! 2010... (Allen Huffman)
>>   4. Re: CoCoFEST! 2010... (J.P. Samson)
>>   5. Re: CoCoFEST! 2010... (Brian Blake)
>>   6. Re: CoCoFEST! 2010... (Mark Marlette)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 17:05:40 -0500
>> From: Roger Taylor <operator at coco3.com>
>> Subject: [Coco] latest DW3 NitrOS-9 6809 L2 modules
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID: <20100516220544.B0FDFD4C0E at qs281.pair.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>
>>
>> I'm looking for the latest DW3 binaries  rbdw3.dr   dw3.sb  and
>> boot_dw3  for replacing the ones that were included in the previous
>> builds of the Drive Pak NitrOS-9 boot drive.
>>
>> The ones I had included were reported to give random error 244's at
>> times.  I don't really *need* the DW3 stuff on the pak, but it will
>> help people move stuff to/from their pak giving one more method.
>> I take no responsibility for the DW3 stuff, but I at least want it to work.
>>
>>
>> On SourceForge I just downloaded the (I guess) latest DW3 boot disk
>> for CoCo3/6809 and extracted these files.
>>
>> boot_dw3  $7AD18C (I don't use this)
>> rbdw3.dr $D4D951
>> dw3.sb  $3CDC22
>>
>> I built a new Drive Pak boot disk which includes the above drivers
>> (except for the boot driver), but then uh-oh...
>>
>> Upon trying a dir /x1, the CoCo crashes with sparklies.  I used
>> wimgtool.exe to extract these files from the Nitros9/6809l2
>> directories from the CoCo 3 6809 L2 DW3 boot disk.
>>
>> Now I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm not the
>> dullest either.  Somebody please clue me in here?
>> --
>> ~ Roger Taylor
>> http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/12/on-the-job-hunt-ups/?test=latestnews
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 17:14:05 -0500
>> From: Roger Taylor <operator at coco3.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] latest DW3 NitrOS-9 6809 L2 modules
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID: <20100516222049.7724FD4C0E at qs281.pair.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>
>> At 05:05 PM 5/16/2010, you wrote:
>>
>>> I'm looking for the latest DW3 binaries  rbdw3.dr   dw3.sb  and
>>> boot_dw3  for replacing the ones that were included in the previous
>>> builds of the Drive Pak NitrOS-9 boot drive.
>>>
>>> The ones I had included were reported to give random error 244's at
>>> times.  I don't really *need* the DW3 stuff on the pak, but it will
>>> help people move stuff to/from their pak giving one more method.
>>> I take no responsibility for the DW3 stuff, but I at least want it to work.
>>>
>>>
>>> On SourceForge I just downloaded the (I guess) latest DW3 boot disk
>>> for CoCo3/6809 and extracted these files.
>>>
>>> boot_dw3  $7AD18C (I don't use this)
>>> rbdw3.dr $D4D951
>>> dw3.sb  $3CDC22
>>
>>
>> This might help.  Here are the CRCs for the working-but-sometimes
>> unstable binaries.  After a while the CoCo starts reporting error
>> #244 and it doesn't clear up by itself.  A restart of the server
>> usually fixes it.
>>
>> rbdw3.dr $BC4F2D
>> dw3.sb $E139CE
>>
>>
>> --
>> ~ Roger Taylor
>> http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/12/on-the-job-hunt-ups/?test=latestnews
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 21:37:48 -0500
>> From: Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com>
>> Subject: [Coco] CoCoFEST! 2010...
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID: <35F2D81D-9C4F-4825-B436-26DAFCD92172 at pobox.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>
>> Well, shucks, it looks like I missed some interesting stuff on Saturday. I rolled in just after 5 p.m. as things were shutting down, so I did not get to hear the talk from one of the designers of the 6809 processor!
>>
>> The interesting things...
>>
>> 1. Roy Justus brings weird stuff. This year, a six legged "spider" looking robot, moved by 18 servos. He had the CoCo fully controlling it, with signals going out the CoCO bitbanger to a Bluetooth adapter, then another bluetooth on the robot. Every step was a ballet of commands to move all the motors to make the creepy thing crawl.
>>
>> 2. John Mark Mobley has the only booth besides HawkSoft that looks like a real Fest booth of days gone. He had a nice backdrop, color printouts, and was showing HI COLOR (Sockmaster program) images. He did a talk on Sunday explaining a bit about the options. He also had some old computers, including an abacus (older than a CoCo, finally!).
>>
>> 3. Cloud-9's DriveWire 4 boggles the mind. Gone is the need for a PC or Mac to host the system -- anything with Java can do it, including a reprogrammed $80 ROUTER! This opens up a ton of possibilities that I want to investigate. THey also had some FPGA experimenters board running the virtual CoCo hardware -- it was doing crazy fast GIME CHIP graphics, complete with VGA output, PC keyboard, BASIC, etc -- if they hadn't told me what it was, I would have swore it was a real CoCo. Can't wait to see what happens with this project (I forget who is working on it, but you guys probably know more about it than I do since I've been off the list since last year).
>>
>> 4. John Linville's video player for the CoCo 3 is amazing. It reminded e of the low resolution web video from 1996-era internet. He had clips and several full movies, with sound. Not what you'd want to watch in your livingroom, but amazing that it can even be done. I'll post videos of this soon.
>>
>> I sold out of all the DVDs I had time to make, and have more to ship out. If you want a copy of my 1999 CoCoFEST! video trip report DVD, send me $5 and I'll ship one out.
>>
>> Video from 2010 coming in a bit, too, time permitting...
>> --
>> R.I.P. Howard Luckey. You will be missed. We will honor your memory at this year's CoCoFest.
>>
>> 2010: 30th Anniversary - Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) - http://www.coco30.com
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 23:50:50 -0600
>> From: "J.P. Samson" <coco+list at jeanpaulsamson.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoFEST! 2010...
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID: <A0112BAC-008B-4A2E-9BE0-04D65BE3E6B2 at jeanpaulsamson.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>>
>> On May. 16, 2010, at 8:37 PM, Allen Huffman wrote:
>>
>>> Well, shucks, it looks like I missed some interesting stuff on
>>> Saturday. I rolled in just after 5 p.m. as things were shutting
>>> down, so I did not get to hear the talk from one of the designers of
>>> the 6809 processor!
>>
>> Thanks for providing those of us who can't make it to the CoCoFest an
>> overview of what went down, Allen.  (I kept watching flight prices for
>> at least 6 months beforehand, and never saw any really good deals that
>> would have made the trip feasible for me.  One day, one day...)
>>
>> So is Cloud-9 thinking about making a full-blown CoCo clone?  I hadn't
>> realized the FPGA designs had gotten so mature.
>>
>> And will there be a CoCoFest 2011?
>>
>> -- JP
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 5
>> Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 08:44:30 -0400
>> From: Brian Blake <random.rodder at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoFEST! 2010...
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID:
>>    <AANLkTilyz9JCiATeU9CG1zI98hUbHkkv5MszHhNLWtuX at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> I hope there's some video of Roy's Replicator (RepliCoCo?) forthcoming.
>> That's gotta be very cool to see.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 10:37 PM, Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Well, shucks, it looks like I missed some interesting stuff on Saturday. I
>>> rolled in just after 5 p.m. as things were shutting down, so I did not get
>>> to hear the talk from one of the designers of the 6809 processor!
>>>
>>> The interesting things...
>>>
>>> 1. Roy Justus brings weird stuff. This year, a six legged "spider" looking
>>> robot, moved by 18 servos. He had the CoCo fully controlling it, with
>>> signals going out the CoCO bitbanger to a Bluetooth adapter, then another
>>> bluetooth on the robot. Every step was a ballet of commands to move all the
>>> motors to make the creepy thing crawl.
>>>
>>> 2. John Mark Mobley has the only booth besides HawkSoft that looks like a
>>> real Fest booth of days gone. He had a nice backdrop, color printouts, and
>>> was showing HI COLOR (Sockmaster program) images. He did a talk on Sunday
>>> explaining a bit about the options. He also had some old computers,
>>> including an abacus (older than a CoCo, finally!).
>>>
>>> 3. Cloud-9's DriveWire 4 boggles the mind. Gone is the need for a PC or Mac
>>> to host the system -- anything with Java can do it, including a reprogrammed
>>> $80 ROUTER! This opens up a ton of possibilities that I want to investigate.
>>> THey also had some FPGA experimenters board running the virtual CoCo
>>> hardware -- it was doing crazy fast GIME CHIP graphics, complete with VGA
>>> output, PC keyboard, BASIC, etc -- if they hadn't told me what it was, I
>>> would have swore it was a real CoCo. Can't wait to see what happens with
>>> this project (I forget who is working on it, but you guys probably know more
>>> about it than I do since I've been off the list since last year).
>>>
>>> 4. John Linville's video player for the CoCo 3 is amazing. It reminded e of
>>> the low resolution web video from 1996-era internet. He had clips and
>>> several full movies, with sound. Not what you'd want to watch in your
>>> livingroom, but amazing that it can even be done. I'll post videos of this
>>> soon.
>>>
>>> I sold out of all the DVDs I had time to make, and have more to ship out.
>>> If you want a copy of my 1999 CoCoFEST! video trip report DVD, send me $5
>>> and I'll ship one out.
>>>
>>> Video from 2010 coming in a bit, too, time permitting...
>>> --
>>> R.I.P. Howard Luckey. You will be missed. We will honor your memory at this
>>> year's CoCoFest.
>>>
>>> 2010: 30th Anniversary - Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) -
>>> http://www.coco30.com
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 6
>> Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 13:44:00 +0000 (UTC)
>> From: Mark Marlette <mmarlette at frontiernet.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoFEST! 2010...
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Message-ID:
>>    <2011112879.255148.1274103840931.JavaMail.root at cl02-host03.roch.ny.frontiernet.net>
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1256
>>
>>
>> Yes there will be another fest! :) Glenside to provide information as it becomes available.
>>
>> We got back to MN around midnight last night. The weekend was another blur a very nice blur.
>>
>> Thanks again to Glenside and all of their hard work. Time goes by to fast.
>>
>> The FPGA work is not our work, it is of Gary Becker and John Kent. People were so amazed that there forgot my opening statement which was the credit acknowledgment of the prior two gentlemen. We had it in our booth later Sunday afternoon showing off their unbelievable talents! AMAZING is an understatement.
>>
>> As ALL of the seminars were GREAT, my favorite was Don Weiss's on the 6809 history. WOW, WOW, WOW!!! What make this special to me was that we have been in contact via Email with these people and Don was the first that we have met in person and are able to put him back in contact with 6809 team. Thank you Don for the memories and to my professional life which has been entirely based on this machine and the chip you created. I hope Richard C.'s video taping did turn out!
>>
>> Were truly are the 'Luckey' ones, RIP, Howard.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Mark
>> Cloud-9
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "J.P. Samson" <coco+list at jeanpaulsamson.com>
>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 12:50:50 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoFEST! 2010...
>>
>> On May. 16, 2010, at 8:37 PM, Allen Huffman wrote:
>>
>>> Well, shucks, it looks like I missed some interesting stuff on
>>> Saturday. I rolled in just after 5 p.m. as things were shutting
>>> down, so I did not get to hear the talk from one of the designers of
>>> the 6809 processor!
>>
>> Thanks for providing those of us who can't make it to the CoCoFest an
>> overview of what went down, Allen.  (I kept watching flight prices for
>> at least 6 months beforehand, and never saw any really good deals that
>> would have made the trip feasible for me.  One day, one day...)
>>
>> So is Cloud-9 thinking about making a full-blown CoCo clone?  I hadn't
>> realized the FPGA designs had gotten so mature.
>>
>> And will there be a CoCoFest 2011?
>>
>> -- JP
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>>
>> End of Coco Digest, Vol 85, Issue 18
>> ************************************
>
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