[Coco] Single board Pentium computer... "CoCo4" or Drivewire server material?

[jdaggett at gate.net]

On 17 Dec 2009 at 21:44, George Ramsower wrote:

>  This isn't really a reply to the previous posts on this but, it got me to thinking....
> 
> Uh, oh!
> 
>   A Coco 4 would need the expansion slot. (period!) A Coco 4 would not have that with the new hardware available today.
> 
>   Could a USB port be used to transfer data to and from an adapter?
> 

Now we need to define "Expansion slot". What is it? 

Is it accomplished by simply bringing address and data buss out to a connector? 
Or is it something like the Coco expansion slot? 
Does it need to be a parallel interface or will a serial interface be acceptable?


>   These new USB ports are fast...
>   Could a driver in an emulator on a really fast computer(or not) could interpret, pass interrupts and process this incoming data and respond to the calls and data as if it were really a coco on the other end of the wire?
>   This, of course, would require a small amount of hardware. A Coco card slot with a USB port on it. It seems with the modern  chips we have, it would be possible. I have no idea about how much this little board would cost to build and most of all, how much programming it would entail, but I'm just tossing this into the discussion.
> 
>   Huh? Is that a good idea or am I a bone head for bringing this up?
> 
> (One hour since Happy Hour was over)
> 
> George
>

Yes a USB interface to an expansion board is very practical. While USB2.0 boast 480 
megabit per second transfer rate, realisticly it is more around 320 megabits per second. If 
you keep the cable lengths short you may very well approach the 480 megabits. 


Then there is USB3.0 comng down the pipe and if it reaches just 50% of its claim, it will still 
be at least 5 times faster. 

expansion slot is not a major issue or show stopper. If not directly implemented on a 
particular board, it can be implemented via USB or some other serial interface if there is not a 
parallel interface on the board.