[Coco] RE: [Color Computer] Looking for a Coco I 64k?

[Dave Dunfield]

>The 26-3003b  (64k CoCo 1 -white) More than likely was made to ship with 
>OS-9 L1, as the CoCo 2 were not out yet. As soon as I get more info from RS 
>about this I will post it

Interestingly, this machine which appears in both the standard 1984 catalog
and the "Computers" catalog is listed in both publications with the part
number "26-2003" (no 'B'). The unit I have has 262003B on the box (original),
and 26-2003B on the information label on the bottom of the unit (the label
is shown on my site as well).

Neither the white 64K Coco(1), the Coco2, nor the 64k RAM upgrade appear
in the 1983 catalog.

The rundown is:

1983 catalog:
 16k Standard BASIC Coco       26-3004
 16k Extended BASIC Coco       26-3002
 32k Extended BASIC Coco       26-3003 *1
 Extended BASIC upgrade ROM    26-3018 *2
 16k RAM upgrade (4k->16k)     26-3016
 32k RAM upgrade (4/16k->32k)  26-3017 *1

1984 catalogs:
 64k Extended BASIC Coco       26-3003 *1
 16k Standard BASIC Coco2      26-3026
 16k Extended BASIC Coco2      26-3027
 16k RAM upgrade (4k0>16k)     26-3015
 64k RAM kit (4/16/32k->64k)   26-3017 *1
 Extended BASIC upgrade ROM    26-3018 *2
 Low profile keyboard upgrade  26-3016 *3

*1 = It is interesting that the 1983 32k Coco and 32k RAM upgrade have the
     same catalog part numbers as the 1984 64k Coco and 64k RAM upgrade.
     Clearly the Coco itself is physically different (white and new keyboard)
     and has the 'B' on the box/label (but not the catalog) - I don't know
     about the 32k/64k RAM upgrade.

*2 = The extended BASIC ROM has no minimum RAM requirement listed in the 1983
     catalog, but says "Requires 16k" in the 1984 catalogs.

*3 = The keyboard upgrade is listed as "Under development. Price and availability
     to be announced." in the standard catalog. No such indication is given in
     the "Computers" catalog.
     (Obviously the upgrade did become available, since one of my silver Coco1's
      has the upgraded keyboard installed).

NOTE: These are Canadian catalogs - I do not know if there are differences in
      part numbers for the US counterparts.

The 64k Coco advertisement specifically mentions OS-9 and it's requirement to use
64k (in fact it's listed before BASIC as an OS option). The Coco2 advertisements
make no mention of OS-9.

Clearly both the 64k Coco and the Coco2 came out between 1983 and 1984. It
would appear that the Coco1 keyboard upgrade came out AFTER the Coco2, however
this does not necessarily mean that the Coco1 with upgraded keyboard came out
after the Coco2. It is however plausable, since the Coco2 was initially offered
only in 16 versions. The 64k Coco(1) would still have been "top of the line" in
1984.

I'd guess that the 32k machine/upgrade actually uses 64k chips and could operate
with 64k RAM (no ROM) however this capability was not acknowleged/advertised until
software (OS-9) was available which could use them. Can anyone confirm this?

Hope this helps - if you like, I can scan the Coco pages from the catalogs for
you.

Regards,
Dave
-- 
dave04a (at)    Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot)  Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com             Collector of vintage computing equipment:
                http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html