[Coco] Tandy Assembly Exhibit: CocoMEM

[Bill Pierce]

But, but, I wanna brag too.... I like the 64 meg...

Not requesting, but thinking aloud (in silent text)...
Given that you have now accomplished this feat of majik, could your design be used as a base to replace the GIME with an FPGA, then design a new GIME allowing new graphics modes (ala Coco3FPGA). Of course this would mean adding a new graphics circuit with VGA capabilities.... This gives creedence to the need for all that memory... BIG graphics screens!!
Yes, I know, that's a whole new board design and a lot to ask for, but we already have a VGA design and the GIME has been emulated in FPGA on several boards, so we just need the graphics capabilities. The design of the Coco3FPGA is a good reference of moving "forward" to a new Coco 3 and maintaining backwards compatibility.

Realistically..
Personally, I would like 8 meg. Given that without redesign, NitrOS9 only supports 2 meg (anything larger is a MAJOR redesign of NitrOS9), software could use the upper 6 meg for graphics and data storage. We have already proved this on the Coco3FPGA by loading in 29x 281k bmp files, then running a slideshow (in RSDOS & NitrOS9). Of course the Coco3FPGA can display the bmps as 640x450 256 colors. But just imaging how many levels/graphics could be store for a game in regular Coco modes... not to mention different sprite sets for each level... Or a text editor able to read PC sized text files with a 6 meg buffer... Or better yet, how about these huge audio/video files being streamed from the CocoSDC... they could be loaded for into memory for smoother viewing, not to mention the possibility of actually editing them.

64k is enough?
128k is enough?
512k is enough?
2 Meg is enough?
Hell, GIME all the memory it'll hold and I'll write software to use it.

 

 

Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
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