🚀 go-pugleaf

 >Reply to Item    9066410                 93/12/16        09:34
 >From:   COCO@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU@INTERNET#
 >Sub:      Re: Help with an MM/1 Ext
 >From <@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU:COCO@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU> Thu Dec 16 20:37:33

 >I'd forgotten (or never known) that the TC9 was going to use the
 >Hitachi CPU.  That wud've really been nice when the "hidden gold"

Yes, back then they talked about the Hitatchi 6309 as just being a 3mhz-6809
clone.

 >was discovered.  Also as you say it wuda been good to have the
 >floppy controller, PIA, SCIA, etc. built right into the board as
 >was planned.

Floppy was not planned to be on-board, but I believe serial and parallel
would have (not sure if I remember correctly) as was 12v on the bus so it
would have made y-cables useable instead of multipaks.

 >I'm surprised they couldn't get it running at 3 MHz.  Originally
 >it was a nice clean OS9-L2 machine, but somewhere along the line

This was a problem with timing, I believe, and how it would have thrown off
everything.  I guess it's the same reason there isn't an "easy" mod to make
the CoCo 3 run at 3mhz using the 6309.

 >Frank decided it better support DECB too, and ROM Paks, with all their
 >funny peeks & pokes into hardware.  They worked out some sort of
 >emulator scheme, but it must've totally kludged the hardware and
 >firmware to do it.

Actually, this was done very easily.  There where a few locations that
emulated the CoCo's hardware by catching and using signals - this was how OS-
9 worked, apparently, and NOT something added to make RS-DOS work.  Steve
Bjork, after talking with Frank at the 1st Last Fest, was interested noting
that it would have been possible to stick one of his DOS booting games into
it and more than likely it would have fired right up and played.  (Or could
have.)  The thing was patching DECB to use the hardware rather than
bitbanger, etc.  I believe the TC9 was planned to run RS-DOS as well as OS-9
(by loading either from disk) right from the start.

 >What I heard was that the TC-9 was cancelled before any were made.
 >Maybe some Beta models were offered and that's when you were broke.

No, they did get out there - thus the "trade in" to move to TC70s.  I even
got a call after the first run was made (maybe the only run?) and was told
to "send in the check".  I know some minor design changes where planned, but
I do not know if a second run incorporating them was ever made.  At this
point, too many parts are no longer available (probably the GIME?) to make
the project feasable.

 >but the same applies to the Coco3 and the MM/1.  Actually I heard
 >the Coco3 debuted almost 2 years later than Tandy had planned,
 >which is a cryin' shame.

It seems like the CoCo 3 had a fair chance - it got support from Sierra for
their games but didn't quite catch on.  But yes, if it came out in 1984 it
would have been ever more ahead of what was out there.  Even in 1986, it
didn't seem like there was anything other than an Amiga (was the Apple IIgs
out then?) that had better graphics.  It wasn't until VGA caught on that PCs
could even top it.

          Allen C. Huffman -/- Sub-Etha Software