emjej@uokvax.UUCP (02/06/85)
In the latest issue of *CoCo Ads* (a classified ad sheet for the Color Computer), someone from Spectrum Projects wrote a short article on the Motorola RMS chip set (remember Mike Knudsen's notes from early 1984?). It looks pretty neat. Does the stuff I'd heard (up to 500*640 graphics, 32 colors from a palette of 4096--the latest *High Technology*, in an article on graphics hardware, shows a magnified portion of an image made with the RMS set which looks quite nice--25*80 text (not mixable with graphics, alas)) and some things I'd not heard, such as support for lightpen, various text attributes (underscore, blink, reverse video, and color(!)), and compatibilty mode with current VDG and SAM used in the CoCo. Well, not *quite* compatible; not until RS starts using the new version of the VDG with a reasonable character set including lower case. The article also says what was posted as being mentioned in Dvorak's *InfoWorld* column, i.e. that a souped-up 6809 box called the Model 9 would be coming from Radio Shack. They further say (I didn't get to see the Dvorak column, alas) that it will use the RMS chip set and that one should think of it "as a Model 4 with color and OS-9 Level Two." They also mentioned that the RMS manual from Motorola was 146 pages long. I'm slightly daunted, but I'll try to get one anyway. James Jones
jlw@ariel.UUCP (J.WOOD) (02/12/85)
Even with the new version of the SAM the 74LS785 is not a real big upgrade for the SAM. All it supports is 16kx4 rams and the newer versions of the 64kx1 chips which were made as real 64kx1 rather than 4 16kx1 chips pasted together. There is no support for memory management or for true large address spaces. Therefore, unless the rather cryptic and unexplained statement made on both data sheets, the 74LS783 and the newer 74LS785 one, that it supports "Easy Synchronization of Multiple SAM Systems" is being used I don't see how the new system will support OS/9 Level 2 which has both large address space and memory protection. It was intended for either the SWTPc or the Gimix 6809 boards, both of which can support up to a Meg of address space (incompatibly, I might add - sigh). They use the newer definition of the SS50 buss the ss50c version which steals the former baud rate lines of the earlier spec. Joseph L. Wood, III AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel (201) 834-3759 ariel!jlw