[Coco] Any news on the so called CoCo4 or Next CoCo

[Frank Pittel]

On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 10:50:45AM +1000, Mark McDougall wrote:
> On 23/10/2010 4:04 AM, Frank Swygert wrote:
> 
> >On the FPGA side -- would it be possible to modify one of those proprietary
> >cards (in software/FPGA) and tack onto an existing order to reduce costs,
> >assuming there is one that provides suitable video?
> 
> If you mean the proprietary boards we've designed for our customers,
> then (in practice) no. We don't own the IP unfortunately, and have
> no right to manufacture that design, or even an altered design,
> ourselves.
> 
> >I would prefer a compact hardware solution as
> >well, it's just not been truly feasible. Total cost with a $200 board would
> >still be around $300 (minus monitor), and then you can't do anything else
> >with it.
> 
> The biggest cost in any Coco4 design - whether a full design from
> scratch or an add-on for an existing FPGA platform - is going to be
> interfacing to legacy hardware. The cost is incurred in both pin
> count and logic level translation.
> 
> There are probably dozens of FPGA boards out there, some cheaper
> than the DE1, that can readily run Coco3FPGA. Choose any board with
> VGA out and some SRAM and interfacing a PS/2 keyboard and RS-232 is
> cheap and trivial.
> 
> But then if you want a cartridge port, interface to analogue
> joysticks, composite video, SD/MMC/IDE/floppy... the cost starts to
> add up *very* quickly.
> 
> Of course a small market (small production runs) only makes matters worse.
> 
> So your $300 Coco is probably a little way off just yet. :(
> 
> Regards,

I don't care if my "coco" is based on an Intel cpu, fpga, etc. I don't even mind
if I have to wait a bit for a "base os" like linux to initially load at power up
as long reboots of the "coco" happens quickly. I'm just not interested in having a
pc with it's OS that happens to be running a "coco" in an emulator window. I have
that now with vcc running in wine on my desktop and don't like it. It's just not
the same in ways I don't know how to put into words.

As people following the list
know I spent a few days earlier this week struggling to get my DE1 to run
cocofpga. I got that working wednesday night and had to wait until yesterday
evening to even try getting the "disks" to work via drivewire. (my usb-serial
converter was in my desk at the office) I've now done more programming on my de1
"coco" in the last 24hrs then I did in years on vcc or mess. 

I do feel that I should thank everyone that has worked to make the de1 cocofpga
possible. Come to the 2011 "last annual cocofest" and I'll buy you a beer!! It is
truly amazing!!

the other Frank