[Coco] CoCoNet

[Roger Taylor]

At 09:04 PM 12/27/2008, you wrote:
>From: "Roger Taylor" <operator at coco3.com>
>
>Roger,
>
>Booting and running OS-9 using a PC as the storage media is 
>exciting. I would love to eliminate the floppies and that old hard 
>drive. even if it wasn't any faster. The peace of mind would do the trick.
>I'm "Champing At The Bit" to see this happen.
>
>I'm curious, though. Would this bit banger driver slow the 
>multitasking of OS9 down much?
>If so, would my RS-232 ports using the 6551 ease the CPU load?
>
>Holding my breath....
>
>George


It's much faster than real floppies.  Even when you use VERIFY ON to 
write to the virtual disks, it writes and verifies quicker.

As for slowing down OS-9, I don't see it.  An OS-9 CoCoNet 
client/driver would do it's work when it is able and not butt in on 
the system to block IRQ/FIRQ during the short blasts of 115200 bps 
streams.  Special care would be taken and a lot of testing.

I'm also an expert with the 6551 ACIA, so there's no reason why 
support for RS-232 Paks or hacked DC Modem Paks, etc. couldn't at 
least be put into the Disk BASIC version for starters.  If someone 
were to hack their Pak to fit a 28-pin socket (I've got a hacked ROM 
Pak board that does this), just an RS-232 Pak could simulate a 
virtual floppy controller for the CoCo with the DB-25 port being the 
connection to the PC's DB-9.

-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com