Specifications

In Depth
6847 VDG
The Color Computer 1 used the original MC6847 VDG. The Color Computer 2 used the enhanced
MC6847T1 VDG, which had lower case characters and the ability to change the text screen border.
In addition, each variant has a PAL & NTSC version of the device and character ROM.
The PAL version outputs an extra 25 lines at the top and bottom of the display, to give a 50Hz
screen refresh rate. Note that the PAL option is not suitable for most VGA monitors.
Selection of the VDG and font are build-time options.
By default, CooCoo v0.1 is built with the NTSC T1 variant.
Color Basic
The Color Basic ROM resides in the FPGA image bitstream. As such it is a build-time option.
By default, CooCoo v0.1 is built with the v1.1 Color Basic ROM.
Extended Color Basic
The Extended Color Basic (ECB) ROM resides in the FPGA image bitstream. As such it is a build-
time option.
By default, CooCoo v0.1 is built with the v1.1 ECB ROM.
Disk Extended Color Basic
The Disk Extended Color Basic ROM is read from the flash device on the target hardware (see
reference section for your target for instructions on how to program the flash). As such it is not
supplied with CooCoo v0.1.
Note that CooCoo v0.1 does not provide emulation of floppy drives. Thus the DECB ROM by itself
is of little utility atm.
CooCoo v0.1 has been developed with the v1.1 DECB ROM.
HDBDOS
HDBDOS enables you to use a CF/SD card to emulate up to 256 floppy drives, and at the same
time use it as a hard drive for use with OS-9/NitrOS-9. It is the most powerful & convenient means
for running Coco software on CooCoo v0.1.
It is beyond the scope of this manual to detail the operation of HDBDOS. Suffice it to say that the
format of the CF/SD card used on CooCoo is 100% compatible with that used on the Glenside IDE
or Cloud-9 SuperIDE Interface on a real Coco; you can switch between platforms at will, provided
you are using compatible patches of HDBDOS.