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"The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:04 pm
by BigEd
This add-in card for the Apple II is rather interesting:
- adds a 1MHz 6809
- shares memory with the 6502
- runs some code approx 2x faster
- can run FLEX or OS-9 or a PASCAL accelerator
- steals approx 80% of clock cycles from the 6502
- can cause the 6502 to lose state and malfunction, if the instruction mix contains too few dead cycles
More info:
http://www.hackzapple.com/ORG1/M2/COPROC/6809MILL.HTM
See also the McMill which did the same with a 68008
http://www.hackzapple.com/ORG1/M2/COPROC/68008MILL.HTM
Re: "The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:24 pm
by RalfK
This add-in card for the Apple II is rather interesting:
- adds a 1MHz 6809
- shares memory with the 6502
There was another 6809 board from West-Germany, the IBS AP10:
This 6809 has its own 64kB RAM. Means that the 6502 runs parallel with full speed.
IBS developped some other coprocessor boards, i.e. the AP20 (68000) or AP21 (6511).
- can run FLEX or OS/9 or a PASCAL accelerator
Please, it's OS-9
There is no relationship to Half-OS from IBM.
- can cause the 6502 to lose state and malfunction, if the instruction mix contains too few dead cycles
The 65C02 should solve this problem.
Regards, Ralf
Re: "The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:37 pm
by BigEd
Oh, that's more like it! 64k RAM could be expensive though, in say 1983 - any idea what price this card would have been?
Let me fix up my OS-9 error...
... although I should note that it's OS/9 in
the manual.
Re: "The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:35 pm
by RalfK
Oh, that's more like it! 64k RAM could be expensive though, in say 1983 - any idea what price this card would have been?
I just have a copy of a pricelist published in August 1985. Nothing else
They offered the AP10 for 895DM as "AP10 INTENEX 6809-64k mit Pascal" but I don't know what's the meaning of "with Pascal". There is no explanation. In 1985: 2.94DM were US$ 1.00.
Let me fix up my OS-9 error...
Microware, the company behind OS-9, wrote it OS-9. I know that even resellers and developers wrote it wrong.
Regards, Ralf
P.S.:
the pricelist
Re: "The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:48 pm
by CurtisP
Put that in a
Mimic System's Spartan and you'll have three computers in one.
Re: "The Mill" - a 6809 coprocessor for Apple II, circa 1980
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:03 pm
by rpiguy2
Oh, that's more like it! 64k RAM could be expensive though, in say 1983 - any idea what price this card would have been?
Let me fix up my OS-9 error...
... although I should note that it's OS/9 in
the manual.
A quick look at a Jameco add from June 1983 shows 4164-150ns going for $7.95 each or 8 for $59.00
The Commodore 64 was advertised in the same Byte magazine for $289 and the Atari 1200 for $449
So it wouldn't have been super cheap, but not outrageously priced.
