halkoD@batman.moravian.EDU (David Halko) (02/04/91)
In article <22@sandv.UUCP>, Steve@sandv.UUCP (Steve Laisch) writes: > I called Frank Hogg Labratory the other day and asked about their TC9... > ...Basically, why would you want a TC9? Its basically a suped up CoCo > 3 and doesnt seem worth it, which is besides the point, theirs no operating > system, or languages included! I am whole heartly after the MM/1 and its > powers, by the way, does any one know if the MM/1 can handle 38.4K? I heard > it could only handle 19.2K. > > -- > ___________________________________________________________________________ > | | > | "They just keep going, and going, and going, and going, and going, | > | | > | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Steve@Sandv<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< | > | | > | ...and going, and going, and going TILL THEY DRIVE YOU MAAAAAD!" | > |___________________________________________________________________________| I dunno... depends... I'm a little disappointed with Frank on only a couple of points with the TC9... I was hoping for more than 2MHz on that 6809 box... I was wishing for 3MHz, but Oh Well.... that is about my only disappointment... This board would make upgrading the 3 nice... you get an immediate speedup from the hardware, although not alot... with the new Bruce Isted drivers, 19200 without dropping characters would be possible (I was running 2 9600 baud lines at full throughput on the 6809 without dropping characters without a problem... with any activity on the 6809 CPU besides multitasking OS9, I had problems doing 2 19.2KBaud lines... that extra .21 MHz would probably be the boost it needs to get over the edge and be successful... If a 68K board was dropped in, existing OS9 would get a boost without the need for 68K OS9... That, my friend, is the key... 6809 OS9 software is becoming available... GOOD 6809 RSDos software is becoming available monthly now... with 1Meg, packages already written in 6809 assembler which will never be ported (like Studio Works, Sound Trax, etc) will gain a little speed, double the memory, and be clear winners... I think if he would have designed it around a 3 MHz 6309 and 2 Meg expansion memory, the board would have been a clear winner giving a descent upgrade in throughput as well as memory... having the ability to boot the system at 1MHz, 2MHz and 3MHz would have definitely been a winner. Old hardware could be used and more advanced hardware which could handle the 3MHz clock rate would really fly... 6809 software being as efficient as it is would fly unlike anything you have ever seen... but alas, 3 MHz was NOT implemented, so I should get off my wishing box. Overall, it is a neat idea, may sell a enough to recoupt his development costs. It is not a bad machine, rather pretty interesting and a great idea. The new keyboard would help cut down CPU usage by not polling the keyboard, the serial port for the serial mouse would sap up less CPU time, pop a 68K in a KBus slot and get lightening fast block moves for graphic screens which scroll like hardware screens, and still having it compatable with the thousands of existing 6809 OS9 programs out there... well, that is not too shabby if you ask me... Lets say you tack on a 68030 card at 16 MHz and go fo OS968K... those lucky stiffs like me with an Eliminator would have just made themselves a 68K computer with 4 serial ports, d/a, a/d, 2 parallel ports, 16MHz 68030, 4 DS 1.44 Meg floppies, 3 120Meg hard drives... 640x225x4 or 320x225x16 color graphics on an analog RGB monitor- sure, slow down with memory and hard disk access, but once the memory boards are added on and populated, no more memory slowdown! (With 1 Meg of RAM on a CoCo3, my buddy Neil hardly EVER uses his hard drive...) When the 68040 board is released, drop one of those in... how about a VSC video card when one is released? How about using a VGA card in a PC-to-KBus adaptor card for some more resolution? I sort of like super VGA.... The point is the growth to a super powerful 68K machine is made more simply... as you upgrade, you can see off your old equipment to someone who is upgrading... With that 68030 card, SVGA, and memory cards, sell the TC9 and CoCo equipment for cheap-cheap and get the serial, floppy and hard drive ports (maybe singular CARD by then) you want. If you ask me, I think that old CoCo equipment will always be useful in that configuration since by that time, SOMEONE will figure out how to program the 6809 on the TC9 to be a smart serial/parallel server... or turn it into a smart Ethernet controller (using the 2 parallel ports, thus not taking up any 68K CPU time.) Let's not count our chickens before they hatch.... The more I think about the TC-9, the more excited I get about it! David J. Halko
Curtis.Boyle@weyr.FIDONET.ORG (Curtis Boyle) (03/10/91)
Exactly (concerning your points of the use of the TC9 board, both with present additional boards and looking towards the future). I talked to Frank recently to, and the speedup he originally had in the TC9 was taken out since it was kinda flaky on production run boards (they could all be gotten to work, but most boards had to be tweaked). From what he was telling me, Bob Puppo designed that speedup, and originally ran it on a Coco 3, NOT a TC-9. Frank also said that Bob is considering writing an article for Rainbow on how to perform the speed-up upgrade on both the Coco 3 and the TC-9, so any 'hackers' out there that wish to do the speed up modification (which will automatically slow down for video refresh on the GIME... unlike the simple clock crystal replacement, you DON'T have to tweak your monitor syncs to run with it) should be able to do it when that article comes out. I know it is going to be one of the first things I do to my TC9 (which I should be picking up at the April Rainbowfest, since I thi nk I am #6 in line from last year's Chicago 'Fest...) -- Curtis Boyle - via FidoNet node 1:140/22 UUCP: ...!herald!weyr!Curtis.Boyle Domain: Curtis.Boyle@weyr.FIDONET.ORG Standard Disclaimers Apply...