Castle today celebrated the first birthday of their 600MHz XScale, RISC OS machine, the IYONIX pc. Castle announced the machine 17th of October last year, and placed it on sale on the 28th of Novemeber 2002. Since then, it has gained a Linux port, and revitalised the RISC OS platform. More information in this drobe.co.uk article.
Iyonix’ First Birthday
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Eugenia Loli
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they’ve not really done anything substantial (imho) to market the ARM / RISC OS platform to advanced computer-users & geeks, like Genesi has done with the Pegasos. It may be expensive, but the CPU and OS platform is unlike anything else and they would’ve got some new users, instead of just catering for existing Acorn users and PDA developers. The introduction comments on the frontpage of http://www.iyonix.com are enough to put many a non-Acorn user off (compare with http://www.pegasosppc.com ).
I’m not trying to troll, just making an observation.
I have a clie, however a friend of mine has a PocketPC and an attachable keyboard. How is this better than that? What exactly is so terrific about putting an X-scale into a mini-tower case as opposed to a case the size of my palm? I just don’t understand why people want this platform… any ideas as to why?
I can understand wanting an SGI Octane, any UltraSPARC server, an Opteron Box, a G5 PowerMac, but a 600mhz PocketPC processor in a box? I’m confused.
As someone who used to use RISC OS, I have to correct the assumption that the Iyonix is targeted at PDA developers, if you were developing for Palm or PocketPC, you really could’nt make a worse choice than RISC OS, that’s not a criticism, it’s just not what the platform is good for.
I think comparing an Iyonix to a palmtop is like comparing a GameCube to a Power Mac, both PowerPC (or variant), but very different.
Why RISC OS? Well it’s really down to the UI, RISC OS is pretty dated technically, but the UI remains very, very good.
I wonder how much trouble it would be for the company to move to samsungs new 1ghz ARM?
If you’re considering a Pegasos to run Linux or old Amiga apps on, you might want to instead consider an AmigaOne. Although right now it only goes up to 800MHz (as opposed to the 1GHz that I think the Pegasos now has), it’s something to consider as far as alternative PPC platforms, and the advantage is that it includes an upgrade to AmigaOS 4.0 when it comes out, which is a much more polished and advanced OS than MorphOS currently is. Here’s a http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=2&rev_… here” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/>here. (Yes the homepage is a little outdated in comparison to Genesi’s but that’s because their waiting on the OS4 release.)
Those links somehow got all messed up, but anyway the first is to a review, the second is to the AmigaOne homepage.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks!
Thank you! You made my day much brighter.
As was said by thegman, its all to do with the UI, and charm ofcourse. Methinks they are stuck on the Iyonix train by the way, which there is an 800mhz variant now. Did samsung ever actually release the Hella (1ghz) chip yet?
Oh yes, if I was going for an Amiga or PPC other than mac, I would be getting an AmigaOne, much more polished OS and hardware for that matter.
PDA development: Yes, the machine would be a suitable choice for this when running Linux, and has been chosen by at least one company to do embedded ARM development.
Processor – it’s wrong to say they’re “stuck with a chip” – any new faster processor would inevitably need a new motherboard design, as the various ARM chips (even 80321 vs 80331) are all somewhat different, but this was expected.
If and when there’s a new version, I expect Castle will use the processor that’s most appropriate, but since they’re a small company (and as such, don’t have a big budget for advertising), this might be some time.
And for those who keep getting it wrong, the operating system is called “RISC OS”
RiscOS looks classier
, ok, ok Im use to MacOS and BeOS way of naming. But really…does it matter?
I was actually supporting the OS too..
Yeah, it does matter ;-). Apart from “RiscOS” being an old MIPS thing and potential confusion, it’s part of the identificaton of the RISC OS community.
Can someone tell me what this platform is used for?
MacOS = Internet newbies and professional designers
Windows = office desktops and cheap PCs
Linux = Servers and office desktops
Amiga = retro-minded users. Possibly with beards
RISC = ???
If as suggested earlier the platform is intended as a development box for PDA software (I can imagine that PDA development is not a self-hosted solution the way that Linux is) then it makes sense.
Advertising for RISC software seems to be nonexistent in the mainstream techy world so I’m not aware of the uses this platform is put to.
Sorry but the way I see it is more like
MacOS = Internet newbies and professional designers
Windows = office desktops and cheap PCs
Unix = Servers and office desktops
Amiga = retro-minded users. Possibly with beards
RiscOS = PDA development
Linux = ?????
It is a general purpose OS, like MS Windows or Mac OS or AmigaOS or OS/2, etc.
It has had some success in UK, and not much out of UK (except maybe Switzerland where there are still pretty active UGs.
Btw, what a platform is used for doesn’t constitute its justification. Its better to consider what it was aimed at.
Well, there’s some activity in all Western European countries for RISC OS, but its biggest usage outside of the UK are probably the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand. I don’t believe there are many users in Switzerland.
Yes, RISC OS is a general purpose OS (and has been pointed out, not suited to PDA development – that usage would be for Iyonixes running ARM Linux) – it could be argued that many of its users are also retro-minded beardies.
“Windows = office desktops and cheap PCs”
erm…. Windows is not cheap – whichever angle you look at it from (except maybe a students).
..that puts it more into perspective
I think the anonymous person @ chello.se has an outlook not necessarily suppotted by the facts, though.
The best description from that list would be retro-minded professional designers, possibly with beards
RISC OS is a very nice OS to use, personally I think it’s UI still has an edge over Mac OS X. When you consider how little the RISC OS UI has changed in the past ten years it shows what a massive advatage it had compared with System 7 & Windows 3.1.
There isn’t a vast amount of RISC OS software (in particular it lacks a decent web browser). But there are high quality DTP, graphics and technical document creation apps. AFAIK there are still professional magazines created entirely on RISC OS hardware.
Some examples of RISC OS software:
http://www.cerilica.com/vantage/
http://www.iconsupport.demon.co.uk/Products/TechWriter/TechWriter~*…
http://www.photodesk.ltd.uk/
http://www.xat.nl/en/riscos/sw/imp/index.htm
If the Amiga can make a comeback…