Hitachi 6309 upgrade

[chuckcmagee]

Can the Hitachi 6309 upgrade be done on a CoCo2? Or is it one of those "well yes Chuck it can but it's a useless upgrade in a CoCo2"?

[Brendan]

I've never heard of doing the Hitachi 6309 upgrade to a CoCo2 (whose max RAM is 64k). Correct me if I'm wrong, someone, but I had the understanding that only NitrOS-9 is designed to optionally take advantage of the 6309 opcodes if present. Additionally, I thought NitrOS-9 needed at least 128k RAM to run in (like OS-9 Level II?), or am I wrong, here? I've only run NitrOS-9 on my CoCo3, which has the 512k RAM upgrade.

If you decide to go for the 6309, they're getting hard to find, so consider the Pro-tector, also from Cloud-9, which buffers the I/Os on it from the rest of the system.

[random_rodder]

See: http://www.nitros9.org/FAQ.html as all basic question about it are answered here.

The 63C09EP can replace the 6809 in any CoCo1, 2 or 3 while only the 3 can run NitrOS9 Level II or the upcoming III. Good advice on the Pro-tector, though.

[chuckcmagee]

Very helpful there RR. I'm sure 128k would be better so hoping I win the bidding on a CoCo3.

[random_rodder]

Unless you're really good with a soldering iron, I'd suggest you send a CoCo3 to Cloud9 and let Mark handle the 63C09 conversion for you. I know for a fact he has quite a few of those CPUs in stock right now, but he may not do it right now due to work on the Superboard. Even better, just wait for the Superboard to come out (goto: http://www.cloud9tech.com/ and click 'Coming Soon' to see), it'll be worth the wait. It's gonna be an awesome addition to the CoCo.

I'm in the middle of repacking a CoCo3 into a TRS-80 Model III case right now. I've hit a point where I'm waiting (patiently since I have no time to work on it right now) for the Superboard to be finished so I can tie most everything else up.

[briza]

:cool: Hi Fellas My first post here.

The Version of Nitros-9 for the coco 1,2's, with a bit of Modifying who knows you might be able to use the speed increase from the 6309 chip on the coco 1,2, Best person to ask would be the Nitros-9 team.
But then the speed increase might screw up the display side of things, as the coco 1,2 could never really do a normal double speed poke(2MHZ), it was limited pretty much too 0.87MHZ because the the other components were rated at only at 0.87mhz, The CPU could handle it, just not the Sam and other parts.


laters

Briza