🚀 go-pugleaf

The following message was recently seen on Delphi (r) from Frank Hogg.
Frank has dropped a glove on this one; anybody want to pick it up.

(please cross post on whatever net groups apply; like comp.68k)

83390 26-NOV 21:00 General Information

     RE: Under $1000 OSK System? (Re: Msga83377)

     From: FHOGG        To: MIKE_GUZZI (NR)





 > Get into OSK for under $100 ??? what kind of idea? a bridge board for

 > a CoCo (like the rocket was supposed to be) or a small computer?



Mike,



Thought that might get a responce. The main, or one of the main problems

in getting a really low cost OSK system is the cost of OSK itself. We

include it in the price for the KiX's but when you see it seperate it is

usually $300 or so. The trick then is to find a 68000 based something that

has OSK as part of it and then make a board to turn it into a full blown

68K computer. Just such a device exists and it doesn't cost much. As a

matter of fact most people could justify its cost as a family purchase

rather than a computer for themselves. Of course I'm talking about a CD-I

player. They have a 15Mhz 68070 and TWO VSC chips, a Meg of RAM and a CD

player plus more. Best thing is you can find them now for $399 and that

price may go down even further. Now all you need is a plug in cartridge

that has a floppy controller on it and you have a 68K computer. The floppy

controller could be built for less than my magical $100. It is not much

more involved than a controller for a CoCo.





Pause while the naysayers get up to speed...



Of course it's not quite that simple. While OSK or (CD-RTOS) is in ROM

there is still software work that would have to be done to make it plug

and play. It is trivial compared to some of the stuff you CoCo guyo have

done over the years so I'm sure the talent exists. Who then is going to

do this work? Not me or anyone at Hazelwood... BUT...



I've talked to Mike Smith about this and he will consider making a

development plug in board for a CD-I player that would have floppy, SCSI,

a serial port (for a terminal) and a monitor ROM derived from the KiX ROM.

This would allow tinkering with the CD-I player from a terminal connected

to the serial port. Like the KiX the ROM would have code to boot from

floppy or SCSI hard disk once 'someone' made something to 'boot'. The

cost of this 'dev' board would depend on what you guys end up wanting on

it and how many are ordered. As a ballpark expect a price under $200 if

20 are ordered. Once a working system is developed we would design and

build the production board with whatever features were needed and offer

it for sale. Who or what group did the software would have to decide what

they wanted (if anything) for their efforts.



Once you can offer a 68K system for less than $500 you would have a better

chance to attract new users to our market and that would help everyone.



Why even some diehard CoCo users mught make the jump.



Pause again while the naysayers catch there breath...



The only thing we (Hazelwood and FHL) want from this is the production

and sale of the plug in boards for CD-I once software is working.



Let the discussion begin.



Frank Hogg -- FHL



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