[Coco] Tandy Assembly Exhibit: CocoMEM

[RETRO Innovations]

On 10/6/2017 12:08 PM, Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
> 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.
Well, I could work on it, but your wish is already in process to being 
granted by Ed, I believe.

I *suspect* that by the time I get production boards designed, Ed will 
have designed 8 or 16MB of RAM into his new GIME design, as it mainly 
just requires some RAM data and address lines (for the large PSRAMs).  
He could use my Verilog equations as a basis, though he is implementing 
a new GIME, so he can carve out some cruft I have to do to keep the 
original GIME happy.

I guess I'll wait for Ed to give more of a timeline of his GIME 
replacement design, as I think the eventual answer is to merge the 
efforts, and his is more ambitious than mine.  That said, if his design 
is 8-12 months away, it probably makes sense to produce the CocoMEM and 
enjoy some sales.
>
> Jim

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