[Coco] CoCo 3 68000/RAM board project

[Stephen Adolph]

Ok, that's very fast.  I worked on a product that had 14 virtex2 pro
parts on it, and it took a minute to load.
..Steve

>>
>
> Just ball park figures. Using serial configuration methods either from the
> platform prom or from SPI flash should be less than a second.
>
> power suppplies will stablize within 50 mS. After that there is a 5mS for the
> configuration to start. Here is where the major delay can occur. Since there
> will be two FPGAs if I daisy chain off of one platform flash or a large SPI
> flash then I double the configuration time since one configures then the
> other. I can also design so that both FPGAs configure at the same time
> with their own separate configuration memory. Then I have to halt
> configuration of one until the other confiures. Still in all I would expect less
> than a second before the start of code execution.
>
> Each FPGA should configure in less than 300mS for XC3S250E. The
> XC3S500E could add another couple hundred mS to the time.
>
> james
>
>
>
> james
>> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 5:58 PM,  <jdaggett at gate.net> wrote:
>> > Frank
>> >
>> > My thoughts to were along that line. Most of the enhancements would
>> > be best used by OS9. I still have the ability to run DECB in a
>> > window and using a modern monitor. There are a couple of ways to do
>> > this. WIth an SPI interface storing and retrieving programs and OS'
>> > are rather easy. The XC2S250E has 12 2Kbyte block rams that can be
>> > configured as ROMs. It would be no real problem to write a small
>> > bios that can be used to boot DECB or NitrOS9/OS9.
>> >
>> > james
>> >
>> > On 8 May 2009 at 17:35, Frank Swygert wrote:
>> >
>> >> This makes the most sense James! While any software written for the
>> >> enhanced machine will only run on it, running older software
>> >> shouldn't be a problem. The dual processor machine would at a
>> >> minimum need an enhanced version of Nitros-9 (or OS-9) just to be
>> >> able to run at all -- zero backwards compatibility, even of the
>> >> operating system. Even the DECB fans like myself realize that it's
>> >> not conducive to easy backwards compatible enhancements, but Nitros
>> >> is. And I realized a long time ago that OS-9 is where all the real
>> >> activity is, especially for new stuff. Not much for DECB. If you
>> >> just want DECB it's easy enough to keep an old CoCo running or use
>> >> an emulator.
>> >>
>> >> -------
>> >> Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 13:24:25 -0400
>> >> From: jdaggett at gate.net
>> >>
>> >> All are good ideas.
>> >>
>> >> Considering that the GIME has limited video capabilities, enhancing
>> >> the graphics ability of the GIME chip you eliminate the second 6809
>> >> to do graphics This can be done by building into the new GIME a
>> >> graphics processor that takes commands and draws the polygon and
>> >> line shapes within the configurable graphics window.
>> >>
>> >> I lean to more enhancing the graphics capability of the GIME chip
>> >> over a dual processor 6809. Unless you have OS9 modified to handle
>> >> dual processors, a coprocessor makes better since with enhanced
>> >> graphics. Also consider this, a FPGA based system can be made to
>> >> run considerably faster than the current Coco3. About ten times
>> >> faster.
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Frank Swygert
>> >> Publisher, "American Motors Cars"
>> >> Magazine (AMC)
>> >> For all AMC enthusiasts
>> >> http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
>> >> (free download available!)
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
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>> >
>> >
>> >
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