[Coco] A faster "Real" CoCo Re: General Memory Question about speed

[Steve Bjork]

Dave wrote:
>Would upgrading the memory in a Coco 2 from 20ns to 10ns provide a 
>noticeable difference in speed?

As many (well, more than many) people pointed out that faster memory 
would not speed up a CoCo.  One point that did not point out that 
some fast memory also needs a faster refresh cycle. So, too fast of 
memory could be a bad thing.

But how do you get a faster CoCo?

Many of you know that I've working on a V.R. CoCo 4 project.  The 
idea was to use a PC to create the next generation of the Color 
Computer in Virtual Reality by using an emulator.  While some work 
has been done on the project, it's still in the design stage.

But this is only phase one of the project.  The next phase was to 
remove the V.R. part of the of the V.R. CoCo 4 project by building it 
in real hardware.  The key is to replace the 6809 with a 
field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and the remaining logic 
including the GIME, SALT and the new V.R. hardware in another FPGA 
chip.  This would keep the remaining support hardware (RAM and ROM 
memory, analog ...) to a minimum and all would fit on an easy to 
build PC board.

What could this new CoCo do?  How about run many times faster.  We 
have scene a "CoCo on a FPGA" run many times faster.  Why stop 
there?  Put a full 6309 with even more improvements.  In the other 
FPGA would be a DMA controller for high speed transfers between the 
memory and your 32 GB USB flash drive.  (Yes, they do make 32 GB 
flash drives.)  Just think how fast your programs would load!

What about all your old hardware and software?  Well the hardware 
version of the new CoCo 4 would have a legacy 40 pin port to plug 
your old hardware into. As for the software, the CoCo 4 has boot-up 
modes control by selector switches.  (Some of the modes are CoCo 1/2, 
CoCo 3, CoCo 3 enhanced and CoCo 4 with selections for overall speed.)

Hopefully, we can start moving forward again on the V.R. CoCo project 
at the next "fest" this spring.

Steve (Zaxxon) Bjork