Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!dml
From: dml@loral.UUCP (Dave Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809
Subject: Re: Future of CoCo3
Message-ID: <1494@loral.UUCP>
Date: 9 Dec 87 00:24:10 GMT
References: <750@potpourri.UUCP> <1447@cartan.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: dml@loral.UUCP (Dave Lewis)
Followup-To: comp.sys.m6809
Distribution: na
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
Lines: 69
Keywords: future, coco3, graphics
Summary: That ain't a CoCo!

In article <1447@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> koonce@bosco.UUCP (tim koonce) writes:
>
>  A lot of people have been talking about the need to expand the
>CoCo's memory from 512k to several meg.  As I see it, the problem with
>memory right now is _not_ the 512k total memory limit, but the 64k
>per-process limit.....
>  ....a change of processor to one with a large linear
>address space, i.e. a 680x0.  More memory is of dubious usefulness
>under the other limitations imposed by OS9 and the 6809.
>    ....discusses other limitations of the CoCo3....

  So, what you want is a 68000-based machine (possibly with options to add
68010/020/030) that can be expanded to 4 megs or more, hardware-assisted
video, built-in disk controller, and more I/O. Such a machine is already
available; it's called the Amiga.

  DON'T TRY TO MAKE A LAMBOURGHINI OUT OF A FORD!

  The Color Computer is what it always was: a low-cost computer with enough
power and features for the serious home user. It's not a CAD workstation,
a professional programmer's development station, or a desktop video engine.
The 'enhancements' you recommend would price it right out of its market.
Do you seriously think such a machine could sell for less than $600? I don't.
I think it would compete directly with the Amiga 500, and suffer the enormous
disadvantage of being upwardly compatible with a "toy" instead of downwardly
compatible with some really advanced hardware (the Amiga 1000 and 2000).
("toy" is not my term; it's from the ignorant bean-counter types that buy
  all those IBM's.)

  I'd say a 68000 Color Computer is AT LEAST 5 years away, probably more,
possibly never. Look how long it took Radio Shack to make the first real
change, and how reluctantly they did it. I went to the Radio Shack booth
at this year's San Diego Computer Society show and asked why they had three
un-klones* and NO CoCo 3's. They said the CoCo 3 was "being discontinued".
AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! I said, sure, they're going to discontinue
the only thing they've ever done right, that had sold 200,000 units before
the first shipment reached the loading dock.

  Now I realize I've said some unpleasant things here -- but don't flame me
as a CoCo-basher. I wrote NewDisk, the shareware OS-9 disk driver for the
CoCo 1&2; rewrote OS9Gen and Cobbler to work with double-sided disks; did
new versions of MakDir, Dir, and Dump; and I'm still working on OS-9 utility
programs for CoCo 1, 2 and 3. I purchased an Amiga 1000 in July, which I
spend most of my time on; I also bought a CoCo 3 last month. I think there's
still a lot of unused potential in the current hardware, why build a whole
new computer just because there are some faster ones out there?

  I've been off the net for a while because news-posting from my site has been
broke for the last four months or so, what can I say, I'm back.

* I propose the term "klone" for all the IBM pee-pee me-too's out there. Since
  Radio Shack's line of 8086 machines are not really `compatible', they should
  be called "un-klones".

-------------------------------
          Dave Lewis    Loral Instrumentation   San Diego

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  dcdwest ---/                 gould9 --/

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