[Coco] Semigraphics modes examples

Nick Marentes nickma at optusnet.com.au
Sat Aug 1 22:44:32 EDT 2015


On 2/08/2015 11:56 AM, Dave Philipsen wrote:
> So, with CoCo 3 prices going through the roof I would think that some
> people would start looking at alternatives such as the CoCo 3 FPGA
> created by Gary Becker.  He just released a major release the other day
> that now supports SD Cards.  He has a driver and descriptors for NitrOS9
> available and, who knows, maybe someone will write some firmware to
> support DECB too. The SD Card interface is quite fast, turning in
> megaread times of around 3.5 seconds. The current release features a
> 6809 core running at 25 MHz!  So for around $170 you can buy a DE-1
> board then add a VGA monitor, PS/2 keyboard, and SD card for a lightning
> fast system that has a high degree of compatibility with the 'real' CoCo
> 3.  Gary is also working on an analog board to support joysticks, RTC,
> and possibly some other goodies.
>
> I know that a lot of people have been developing for NitrOS9 and DECB on
> the PC platform and then moving the object code to the CoCo via
> drivewire images but now it is actually feasible to assemble / compile a
> program without having to go take a coffee break while the CoCo crunches
> away on it.  Just as an example, I was playing around with the source
> code for a pretty simple utility that came originally with OS9; the MDIR
> command.  The source is probably around 5-6K of text and the object is
> maybe a couple of K, I forget.  But, after editing the source code I ran
> the stock assembler and had a compiled object file in less than three
> seconds using the SD card and running at 25 MHz.
>
> Dave Philipsen

Until it runs more of the CoCo3 specific machine code software, it's 
isn't a replacement for my real CoCo3 I'm afraid.

I have a CoCo3FPGA but haven't loaded the latest firmware. Where do we 
get the latest revision?

Nick


More information about the Coco mailing list