[Coco] MISTer FPGA project... CoCo3???

[James Ross]

Francis Swygert wrote:
> ... there is a new (to me, anyway!) MISTer project now! This uses a Terasic DE-10 NANO ... 
> ... There isn't a Color Computer core (yet?) ... 

As pointed out in another message -- there is a CoCo3 core, Roger Taylor's "Mr. CoCo".  

http://www.cococommunity.net/how-to-build-a-mr-coco/

He's done a really good job at it, however, his core is closed source.  

> ... is it to competitive to the 
> CoCo FPGA project in price/performance to be of interest? 

Not in my opinion.  As far as I am concerned, the more the merrier.  I'd love to see the CoCo3FPGA ported to it.  It would take some massaging. Tear out the 6502/DriveWire server used for disk access and replace it w/ the standard way that the MiSTer loads carts/disks, etc ...  

The MiSTer is really worth it since you get so many other systems and arcades for basically nothing ... The De10-Nano has quite a hefty FPGA chip --> 110k LE's -vs- DE1's 20k LE's.

They just released the Atari ST core, w/ a cycle accurate 68k processor. I find myself more and more interested in the Atari ST as it seems to the one w/ the 16/32bit system most kin w/ the CoCo3.  Base system CPU had to do all the graphics, like the CoCo -- however later models had the "blitter" chip.  Graphics modes and resolutions, seem comparable ... etc ...   

FPGA is really fascinating.  These cores are as close to the real thing as you can get w/o being the real thing.

I'm really interested in mixing the two technologies -- FPGA w/ retro CPU's.  Basically, let the FPGA do everything minus the CPU, instead have a real one.  I don't know why that attracts me, but it does.  
-jr