[Coco] CoCo3FPGA, FPGA Development, and GIME replacement

[gene heskett]

On Wednesday, July 06, 2011 05:38:49 PM Nick Marentes did opine:

>  > I don't think there will ever be a mass-produced,
>  > shrink-wrapped Next Generation CoCo. But if there's enough interest,
>  > we could very well see hobbyist-produced kits that make it pretty
>  > easy to plug in one of the FPGA development boards, upload the
>  > CoCo3FPGA bit file, and go.
> 
> I guess this what I'm afraid of. If there is no "shrink-wrapped next
> generation CoCo" but hobby-produced kits, will there be a "mish-mash" of
> different boards, each customized to a handful of user's specifications?
> Writing software will be a case of software that supports the feature of
> one board versus the other. Software may not utilize all the features of
> one board, instead supporting the most common set of functions.
> 
> This is not so bad, it's fun for the hardware hackers (the old
> definition of the term!) but it doesn't create a standard product that
> everyone else can use fully. And considering that such a product would
> probably be sold in small numbers ($200?), it may be something only for
> the few. It may not attract the software developer type, not that there
> are many left for the CoCo.   :(
> 
> In the end, I guess it's just a fun project for those few who are
> interested in FPGA/CPLD designs.
> 
Leftover, unused resources on the targeted board are to me, a 100% non-
starter.  What is important to me is absolutely faithful emulation of the 
coco, in that every game (and I am not a gamer) and OS ever written for the 
6809 runs flawlessly even if 20x faster.  I am relatively sure we can find 
a bit someplace in the DP to switch in a delay that slows it down to about 
the same as the real thing.  When slowed down, its expansion connector 
should look exactly like a real coco, and an MPI with whatever plugged into 
it, should work normally.

That said, 2 megs of memory, 6309 compat, HDB-DOS and Drivewire should also
be capable of being controlled, just as simply.  Meet those conditions, and 
I expect it would 'take off' and sell at least a hundred, maybe more, 
certainly at least one for me.  Let this be Marks Superboard with a re-
sorted feature set maybe?

Cheers, gene
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