[Coco] CoCo 3 68000/RAM board project

[jdaggett at gate.net]

It is a essentially a replacement Coco but done in either two or three 
FPGAs. Currently I am lenaing towards three FPGAs. This can be used as 
an embedded sytem or as a stand alone system. 

What I am about to share is a work that I started several years ago and has 
undergone several intese modifications. First off was to do a Coco3 into a 
single FPGA. While that is doable, in fact has been. None of the 
development boards out there that are under $300 in cost are lacking in 
either I/O or VGA color depth withour modification. 

This all coincided with my understanding of several handheld computers 
that are out there to control a telescope. Two in particular use a processor 
that runs no faster than a Coco3. To give it in a nutshell, I decided to 
investigate using a Coco3 for a telescope controller. To my surprise it can 
be very well adapted to such a task with some external motor drivers. 

The main sticking point is that setting up a laptop, and a coco system is a 
bit to much for the field use in a remote area. I need a Coco3 that is small 
and portable. No bulky disk drives and monitor. Just the computer, a small 
LCD, and a flash drive. 

The current direction is now more in line with what Sockmaster had 
proposed years ago which at first I rejected. Now in retrospect some of his 
ideas are not bad all. One FPGA will house the CPU and any 
enhancements to the instruction set like a math coprossesor. The second 
chip is the main guts of the GIME chip like the MMU, registers and such. 
The third FPGA is the actual video section. All are separate boards and are 
plugable into a main board that is but a carrier. A fourth board will have the 
Vinculum chip that gives me direct access to a USB flash drive for storage. 
The Vinculum chip handles all the FAT issues for drive access. 

Like I stated it started from first being a GIME replacement into a Coco3 
that has grown maybe out of proportion. But size is now a driving factor and 
the ability to operate off of batteries. 

i hope this is less than a minute but a synopsis of what I am doing. I am 
hoping to have some form of a working unit by the end of the summer. I 
finally have the finances and hopefully the time to realize a dream of mine 
for the last four years. Also to learn something in the process. 


james


On 10 May 2009 at 17:06, Bookworm wrote:

> Would you mind explaining exactly what you are doing? One minute it
> sounds like a couple of replacement chips for a CoCo 3. The next
> minute it sounds more like a replacemet for the CoCo, or something
> that has nothing to do with it.
> 
> Am I as think as you confused I am?
> 
> 
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