[Coco] CoCo emulation on a Compaq Internet Appliance?

[Roger Taylor]

At 12:14 PM 10/23/2007, you wrote:
>Hmm the gold strip denoted "cardbusness". Hmmm didn't know that. 
>Judging from the vintage of the hardware is almost definatly 16bit. 
>Also the USB connectors are probably 1.1 only. No drama there as we 
>are trying to run an emulator not Vista. Even the old PCMCIA 
>standard supported ATA with is what were after really. Just need 
>SOMETHING to boot off of, Although I've read people have had trouble 
>with larger CF cards in the 4Gig range. Probably a bios issue. Again 
>I can't see that being a real problem. The only limiting factor I'm 
>seeing is real floppy support. USB ain't going to cut it. I'm really 
>hoping the bridge set has a built in controller we can get to 
>without pulling hair out. As soon as I get the thing and apply 
>screwdriver I'll know more.
>
>-----


Joe, I found a site just now that might give us the info we need to 
hack the IA-1 (Compaq Internet Appliance) to run as an emulated 
CoCo.  I think the nickname for this unit is the "IA-1" if you're 
Googling up stuff.
http://linux.boeldt.net/IA-1_Description.asp

What I know as of tonight is that any standard PC USB keyboard or 
mouse will work right when you plug them in.  I haven't tried my USB 
hard drive yet since the unit is pretty much stuck in MSN Companion 
mode when you turn it on, and it insists on dialing out for a 
connection.  It only has two toll free numbers it cycles through and 
I haven't found a way to get it to just go into ATD mode for 
connecting into a Windows dial-in mode.  Vista should allow a dial-in 
connection and I was hoping that I could at least get the thing to 
connect to the internet that way.  I don't have a real telephone line 
anymore (I use broadband for my land line phone).

I ordered a PCMCIA to CF adaptor on Ebay pretty cheap but it's coming 
from Hong Kong, so it may be up to a week before I get that.  You can 
get a Lot of very cheap accessories from those Hong Kong powersellers 
I've noticed, with cheap shipping.  Sometimes I wonder how it can be 
cheaper than our own shipping in the US, but I'm not complaining.