[Coco] Utility of large MPI

[Salvador Garcia]

"I think that cramming to much functionality into one device could make it too expensive though."
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Expensive? Possibly yes. Too expensive? possibly no. When designing multi option device there are several factors that need to be thought out. One of them is cost. If the UberCart will have SDC, RTC, networking, music, and a drive interface, how much will it cost if i want to buy carts with this functionality? Would I need an MPI? If so, add the cost of this device. And that's where each user must assess how much needs to be spent to get all the features s/he wants. Then there is the user that welcomes all this functionality, but can't afford it. More than once I have seen on this list people who (jokingly or not) say that they are saving up to buy this and that.
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This brings me to broach the topic of feature creep. How many features are too many? How many people want all of them? How many will end up not buying the item because they have to pay for features that they will not use? This can be resolved by building some sort of modularity into the design, but then this might end up incurring other costs and a more complex design. (But I still like the idea of paying only for the features that you want.) Regards, Salvador

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-----Original Message-----
From: RETRO Innovations <go4retro at go4retro.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wed, Feb 3, 2016 1:29 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Utility of large MPI

On 2/3/2016 9:13 AM, Barry Nelson wrote:>   My thoughts/ramblings.>>   It is fairly easy to implement a SD/MMC interface using SPI if emulating a floppy controller is not required. If floppy emulation is desired then it becomes more complex, however floppy emulation is necessary to run many pieces of software since they access the floppy controller directly. A real time clock is one thing I miss on my CoCo SDC that I had on my original Burke & Burke HD controller. An ethernet interface could be implemented fairly easily in a limited fashion using a serial to wifi chip to allow telnet, or implement the DriveWire protocol on an Arduino and use that to interface to wifi or ethernet. I think that cramming to much functionality into one device could make it too expensive though. The ethernet interface could be a separate device. I wish the CoCo SDC included a realtime clock however. I think a parallel port would be of limited use at best, a second serial interface would be much more useful, though still of limited value.>What about a serial interface that can do 230kbps?And, is compatible with the RS232Pak?How many rs232 paks can OS/9 handle? 2?Jim-- RETRO Innovations, Contemporary Gear for Classic Systemswww.go4retro.comstore.go4retro.com-- Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco