Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!not-for-mail From: Neil Franklin Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Dragon 32 (was Re: Motorola/Intel Wars) Date: 10 May 2000 23:54:29 +0200 Organization: My own Private Self Lines: 68 Message-ID: <6uhfc62hre.fsf_-_@chonsp.franklin.ch> References: <39197781@news.isc.rit.edu> <8fbv83$pvc@nnrp1.farm.idt.net> <8fc0rn$gb3$1@agate.berkeley.edu> <568.165T1194T11083451ghira@mistral.co.uk> <1030.165T2584T12314641ghira@mistral.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: chonsp.franklin.ch X-Trace: chonsp.franklin.ch 957995669 832 10.0.3.2 (10 May 2000 21:54:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@chonsp.franklin.ch NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 May 2000 21:54:29 GMT X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:55866 "Adam Atkinson" writes: > On 10-May-00 18:36:41, Pete Fenelon said: > > >> I had a Dragon32, which seemed to all intents and purposes to be a > >> Tandy CoCo in a different box, and it definitely had a 6809E. Had a 6809? It still has one, at least mine has. :-) > >With, if I remember rightly, just enough changes made to the BASIC and > >the ROM entry points to make CoCo software not run without a bit of > >munging.... > > ISTR that getting CoCo stuff to work wasn't too hard. Yep, that is the one. Not to mention having the -12V missing on the Slot, making CoCo peripherals not work (it did have +12V on the pin, not n.c., may the magic smoke exit). > >And that bloody awful keyboard and uppercase only display. > > The keyboard was absolutely shocking, yes. There was a small machine > code program that made the damned thing read the keys a lot faster > though. And the 32x16 (?) text display was pretty dire, yes. I had no problems with the keyboard (apart from it being noisy, clonk, clonk, clonk). But the 6847 VDC video chip was really crappy. Given the abilities of the 6883 SAM in there (DRAM controller, CPU Address multiplexer, DRAM refresh, an nice continuous address video DMA generator with external new-line and new-frame signals, system clock generation) they could have made an lot better video chip (at least as good as the AppleII had). More lines, more chars/line, better colour combinations. I one actually hat the idea to replace the VDC with something better, but lack of hardware knowledge lead me to give up the Dragon and get an C64 instead. Interestingly the 6847 is the one kaputt chip in my Dragon (no colurs any more). > Still, the 6809 itself was quite a fun chip. I preferred it to the > 6502 for no doubt rather silly reasons. Perhaps because of them many large registers? Them powerfull addressing modes with nearly any register involved? > Never used the Z80, so have no > grounds at all for comparison there. Similar speed as the 6809, but awfull instuction set in comparison. Of course Z80 is 1976 technology, 6809 about 1978/9. Thats about 4 times the transistor budget. -- Neil Franklin, neil@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/ Nerd, Geek, Hacker, Unix Guru, Sysadmin, Roleplayer, LARPer, Mystic Use a WIMP (Windows Icons Mouse Pulldowns) interface - or get one with a CLUE (Command Line User Environment)? ###### From: "Adam Atkinson" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Dragon 32 (was Re: Motorola/Intel Wars) Date: 10 May 2000 23:1:47 +0000 Organization: Collegio Pierpaoli, Montaguzzo Lines: 35 Message-ID: <1310.165T2382T13814535ghira@mistral.co.uk> References: <8fbv83$pvc@nnrp1.farm.idt.net> <8fc0rn$gb3$1@agate.berkeley.edu> <568.165T1194T11083451ghira@mistral.co.uk> <1030.165T2584T12314641ghira@mistral.co.uk> <6uhfc62hre.fsf_-_@chonsp.franklin.ch> NNTP-Posting-Host: d224-75.dial.mistral.co.uk X-Trace: localhost.localdomain 957996236 28589 195.184.224.75 (10 May 2000 22:03:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@mistral-uk.net NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 May 2000 22:03:56 GMT X-No-Ahbou: yes X-Newsreader: THOR 2.6a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!easynet-tele!easynet.net!insnet.net!nntp.mistral.co.uk!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:55912 On 10-May-00 21:54:29, Neil Franklin said: >> >> I had a Dragon32, which seemed to all intents and purposes to be a >> >> Tandy CoCo in a different box, and it definitely had a 6809E. >Had a 6809? It still has one, at least mine has. :-) As has mine. It's still here in its original packaging. I haven't used it for about 5 years, I have to admit. Apart from anything else, the tape recorder I used to use with it died. >> >And that bloody awful keyboard and uppercase only display. >> >> The keyboard was absolutely shocking, yes. There was a small machine >> code program that made the damned thing read the keys a lot faster >> though. And the 32x16 (?) text display was pretty dire, yes. >I had no problems with the keyboard (apart from it being noisy, >clonk, clonk, clonk). It was very hard to type at a reasonable speed on it. >> Still, the 6809 itself was quite a fun chip. I preferred it to the >> 6502 for no doubt rather silly reasons. >Perhaps because of them many large registers? Them powerfull addressing >modes with nearly any register involved? I can't remember what my reasons were. They may or may not have been sensible ones. -- Adam Atkinson (ghira@mistral.co.uk) I'm sure they'll listen to Reason. (H. Protagonist)