[Coco] CC-Five (was Re: Pseudo CoCo4???) (LONG)

[Joel Ewy]

Roger Taylor wrote:
> At 02:09 PM 1/25/2007, you wrote:
>   
>> That's a really great idea, but I'm thinking all the external hardware
>> to control that pseudo-floppy is expensive. Wouldn't it be cool if the
>> CPU core had an alternate register set and memory space? Like a
>> user/supervisor mode- you hit a hotkey and the normal processing is
>> suspended, you get an on-screen menu to mount/unmount floppy images with
>> names and descriptions (instead of a number on an LED display) then you
>> can just resume normal operation. Kind of like how MESS works. It would
>> probably be less costly from a hardware perspective I would assume.
>>     
> Ah, the ole CoCo 4 subject that never dies.  :)  Even after 10 years 
> of ideas like these, I think we've pretty much already got an 
> advanced enough CoCo 3 to nickname it a 4 if you like.  
That's why I think we should call it a CC-Five.  :)  (and this amp goes
to 11!)
> With all of 
> the Cloud-9 hardware products, it's more modern than it probably ever 
> will be.  
Uh?  Actually it's already been more modern than it ever will have been
again.  :)
> ...
> I would like to see if a patch can be made for OS-9 Level Two and 
> NitrOS-9 Level Two for Sock's HiColor graphics mode, but mainly for 
> MultiVue to give the CoCo 3 an appearance of being a CoCo 4, if you 
> like, since the video would be awesome compared to the present 
> limitations.  Ofcourse, if HiColor does horizontal scanline updating 
> of the palettes then this might not be possible in any OS-driven 
> environment where you want to do something besides just stare at a 
> high color picture, as in picture viewers.
>   
Some of Sock's HiColor modes don't update the palettes.  Those would
still offer a lot better color than the regular display modes.

JCE