Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!ihnp4!ihlpl!knudsen From: knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809 Subject: Re: CoCo 3 suggestions Summary: Need MPI for OS9! Keywords: Cyrus ROMpaks MPI Message-ID: <6259@ihlpl.ATT.COM> Date: 15 Aug 88 19:05:05 GMT References: <4503@saturn.ucsc.edu> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 27 Frank points out that the MPI will only postpone the plug & unplug syndrome for heavy cartridge users. However, I need the MPI just to run my OS9 system. In fact I whish I had 1 or 2 more slots. What I keep in there is: Floppy controller Hard disk controller MIDI interface RS232 Pak and if I hd another slot would keep my 256K DISTO RAMdisk in there. Then maybe speech synthesizer, etc. At least I don't need an 80-column pak any more. It's NOT true that an MPI upgraded for Coco 3 will not work with older Cocos, just certain peripherals (like Coco Max) that use out-of-range addresses. Of course the MPI's biggest problem for OS9 users -- its screwed-up interrupt-mishandling -- is caused by its original design intent as a 4-game-cart manifold, and Tandy's early use of constant interrupts to signal a game cart's presence. Finally, without excusing Tandy's $60+ price for the MPI, remember the TI/99, which needed a bookshelf-speaker-sized expansion box just to add more RAM, let alone a disk? Cost a few hundred $$, too!