[Coco] Smart IO interfacing on the CoCo

[Allen Huffman]

On Apr 25, 2020, at 12:44 AM, RETRO Innovations <go4retro at go4retro.com> wrote:
> 
>> Unrelated. . .  Have you done much with Microchip 24FJ64GB002?
> 
> Not sure that I have.  I have done stuff with the PIC24MX, but I am not sure that is the same thing.  I'm not as much a fan of PIC (pay to get the C optimizer), but I will admit their parts pricing is better than Atmel.  Now, though, with esp32s for almost nothing, and free gcc compiler, I think I've moved on.

It’s a USB host controller chip that handles everything, then speaks serial. You can buy it on a proto board ready to hook up and preprogrammed for $10 shipped from England. Much cheaper to buy it from the US and program it directly, of course.

USB keyboard, mouse, thumb drives, game controllers, and everything... all super cheap and easy to hook to the CoCo with a simple interface. :)