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

[Dave R in Illinois]

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

 

 

Would this project be based around this?

http://members.optushome.com.au/jekent/FPGA.htm

 

Being a CoCo enthusiast I would like to help this project in any way
possible. By no means am I a good programmer, but I can help possibly with
the hardware aspect of this project. Please let me know how I can become
involved in this project.  I notice you said " the fest" this spring, I
happen to live local to where it is to be held, and will most definitely be
attending. 

 

Dave