[Coco] Re: CoCo video? (CoCo4)

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Frank

Why? That is a really good question.  

Well simply put it this way, I have wanted a simple and small embedded computer 
system that can be used to control my telescopes. By small, my goal is to have a 
board about the size of a 4x6 card or smaller that contains much if not all the 
present Coco 3 and drive a 640x200 monochrome LCD that I already have. So this 
started out as a hobby project that I devote some time here and there over the past 
year or so. 

Yes I could do most with a laptop and a card with some dedicated hardware. I could 
even go out and buy a Intel based embedded board also. There are other processor 
basedembedded boards that are available. But simply I like the old venerable Coco 
and actually RSBASIC can do all the functions that I need to control a scope. 

As for cost, yes right now doing everything in a XC2S300E(Spartan 2E family) is an 
expensive project for any production beyond a onesee twosee situation. If more 
boards were to be built, I would definitely consider the Spartan 3 family of parts. 
The XC3S400 can be had for in the $25 range. Half the cost of the Spartan 2E 300K 
gate part I am currently using.

Right now the size of the card depends on how many I/Os I willrequire from the 
FPGA. 

Besides it has been a fun learning experience. I finally getting to do what I want to 
do, design an IC.

james

On 4 Mar 2006 at 14:52, farna at att.net wrote:

> Making an FPGA enhanced CoCo does sound feasible, but I have to ask why?
> That's a lot of work for a product that will end up costing more than most
> would want to pay. I understand the desire for a high performance CoCo,
> but with the cost of PC hardware and fast emulators, the "CoCo4" is
> already there. A decent Pentium 3 processor will run an emulator much
> faster than a CoCo. So why not tweak an emulator to extend the CoCo
> capabilities? That should be doable while still maintaining compatibility.
> It would be easy enough in NitrOS-9. DECB could always have the option of
> running a standard emulator. Make the thing self booting with one of the
> free DOS systems, and run from something like a VIA mini computer board,
> package in a small case with either a small laptop HD or a flash card to
> boot from, and there you have it!