Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!cartan!wheatena!koonce From: koonce@wheatena (tim koonce) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809 Subject: Re: Future of CoCo3 Message-ID: <1447@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 20:58:04 EST Article-I.D.: cartan.1447 Posted: Fri Dec 4 20:58:04 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 05:51:30 EST References: <750@potpourri.UUCP> Sender: nobody@cartan.Berkeley.EDU Reply-To: koonce@bosco.UUCP (tim koonce) Organization: UC Berkeley Math Department Lines: 37 Keywords: future, coco3, graphics Summary: More memory?!?! 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. Level 2 does not allow any easy access to large amounts of memory. What is needed is either 1) dynamic instantiation of data objects under Level 2 (What I mean here is a call which is "Create a new data module with this name and this size". Then programs could simply ask for a lot of data modules to be created and link/unlink to manage very large data spaces. This would still not directly address the code size limit, though, but that can be gotten around with multiple parallel processes communicating throught data modules, or pipes, or... Such a capability *could* be added, without too much trouble.), or 2) 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. As for greater graphics resolution, things can get unpleasant for the graphics programmer if graphics screens exceed about 40k, since then you can't fit the graphics routines and all of the screen memory into a single address space. Simple tasks like drawing lines can then get pretty complicated. Basically, I feel that the days of the 6809-based CoCo are numbered. I like the computer for its capabilities for the price, but I don't think that large increases in memory or graphics capability are reasonable without a change of processor. What I would like to see is a dual-processor 6809/68000 system, that would allow you to run Level 2, with the 68k as an i/o processor, or OSK with the 6809 as an i/o processor, or even OSK with Level 2 in a window!! Tim Koonce +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |ARPA: koonce@bosco.berkeley.edu | | |Delphi: TIMKOONCE CIS:72276,1135 | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+