[Coco] COCO FPGA

[Becker, Gary]

It is getting harder to support the Spartan 3 board. Even though the Spartan 3 board is my favorite, its lack of built in features leaves it at a disadvantage. There are SD Card slots that can be plugged in, but they might have to be rewired to get good power and ground. If you decide to get a DE1, try selling your Spartan 3 on eBay. They are still in demand. I assume they are being used in an education environments. Students are looking to save a few bucks by buying on eBay. The new semester is starting in January. Recently I bought an additional board on eBay. I believe I paid $110 and it was shipped to me for free.

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Ewy [mailto:jcewy at swbell.net] 
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 2:49 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] COCO FPGA

On 12/24/2011 01:15 PM, Becker, Gary wrote:
> SD storage is coming to the CoCo3FPGA. In one mode, disk images will appear to be floppy disks behind the standard floppy controller. Just as DW can be used today. Not sure when it will be finished. It depends on how much time I have over the holidays to work on it. The code is almost finished and I have started the debug process. So, look for it sometime in January 2012.
>

So Gary, is this the year my Spartan 3 board really becomes obsolete?  
Should I save my pennies for a DE1, or might there be some SD card 
interface board out there that could plug into the Spartan like the VGA 
breakout board.  On-board flash would be super cool.  As much as I like 
DriveWire, it would be pretty nice to have the option of cutting the 
cord.  I'm excited to see what's next.

JCE

> Everyone have a safe and happy holiday season.
>
> Gary
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aaron Wolfe [mailto:aawolfe at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 2:34 AM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] COCO FPGA
>
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 3:17 AM, Mark McDougall<msmcdoug at iinet.net.au>  wrote:
>
>>> I know first hand that Drivewire will go well into the future.
>>
>> Personally I don't like DriveWire because it doesn't work with software that
>> accesses the disk hardware directly. That's not to take anything away from
>> it, though...
>>
>>
> On the CoCo3FPGA, DriveWire *does* work with software that accesses
> the hardware directly, because the CoCo doesn't know it's using
> DriveWire.  The stock DECB rom is running and talking to what it
> believes is a stock FDC.
>
> Funny enough, any storage option that did use the SD card would
> probably not be so compatible, just as any of the hard drive/flash
> storage options available to a real coco are not so compatible.
>
>
>
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