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

[Glen VanDenBiggelaar]

The Motherboard is another interesting feature (see the big pics on my site 
http://www.coco.8bit-micro.com/white2.htm) and has jumper settings for 16 to 
64K I was told this was an "E" board, but the few I have cracked open shows 
a trace wire right from factory.
Another intersting tidbid, is that here in Alberta, they were only listed as 
"Special Order" and A former RS service Employee had never even seen one 
(although he worked on hundereds of CoCo 1 Model 1, 2, 3 etc.
My box is indded the same as yours which has the "B" listed right on the 
side and "64K"hand written on the top. the date code is "6A3" which I belive 
is June 1983, but I don't have a Date code decoder for RS.
>
>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
>
>
>
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