Initial Iyonix PC Specifications
6th November 2002
The following information on the forthcoming IYONIX pc was presented by Castle Technology Ltd at the RISC OS South East Show, Guildford, on Saturday 2nd November 2002:
IYONIX Motherboard
- All new design
- ARM (80321) XScale processor - 600MHz
- GeForce2 MX400 PCI video card
- Up to 1GB DDR (Double Data Rate) memory (200MHz)
- UDMA 100 Hard Drive
- PCI expansion (32-bit & 64-bit)
- Hi-speed 32-bit EASI podule bus
- Gigabit networking (10/100/1000 base T)
- Technical Reference Manual (to be published)
Case (front)
- MicroATX midi tower design
- 2 x 5.25" drive bays
- 3 x 3.5" drive bays (2 external)
- Soft-on (computer controlled off)
- 2 x USB ports
- Recessed reset button
- HD and Power LED on front
Case (rear)
- 250 watt PSU with silent mode
- Power on/off (hard)
- 4 x PCI Slots (2 x 32-bit, 2 x 64-bit)
- 2 x Hi-speed 32-bit EASI podule slots
- Networking
- 2 x USB ports
- 2 x serial ports
- Mains in
RISC OS 5
- 32-bit with video extraction (video now from PCI graphics card)
- Feature set based on RISC OS 4.02
- PACE derived and copyright
- Dedicated IYONIX version
- Long filenames
- Increased wimpslot - application space
- ICA client
- 16-bit font manager with Unicode support
- USB printing
- OS in Flash ROM, copied into RAM
32-bit software development
- BASIC programs will work without any work needed
- C/C++ programs work after recompiling
- Assembler programs need simple re-engineering
- 32-bit software will run on RISC OS 3, 4 & 5
- Wide range of software already 32-bit: E.g. Techwriter (Easiwriter), Fireworkz, Ovation Pro, Vantage, OHP, Oregano 2, Draw, Paint, Edit, PDF, AMPlayer, InterGIF, KINO, SparkFS etc.
- Aemulator 26-bit emulator available from Spellings
Theoretical speed increases
| SA Risc PC | Iyonix | Better by |
| Processor | 233MHz | 600+MHz | 2.6x |
| RAM | 16MHz | 200MHz | 25.0x |
| Hard Drive | 2MB/s | 32MB/s | 16.0x |
| Expansion bus | 6MB/s | 264MB/s | 44.0x |
| Podule bus | 1.5MHz | 4MHz | 2.7x |
| Resolution (16M) | 800x600 | 1920x1440 | 5.8x |
| Screen draw | 4.32 sec | 0.99 sec | 4.3x |
Register at the IYONIX web site (www.iyonix.com) for a chance to win a brand new IYONIX PC.
Development suite
- Updated C compiler (now many C99 features)
- Licence to use tools and libraries for commercial products
- Suitable for RISC OS 3, 4 & 5
- Suitable for 26-bit and 32-bit versions of RISC OS
- Major bug fixes
- Extended compiler features
- Produces faster run-time code
Development suite (software)
- C/C++
- Desktop tools
- Assembler
- User interface toolbox
- !System
- Licence to use and distribute 32-bit !System
- ABC compiler (formerly from Pineapple)
- SID and Armalyser disassemblers
Development suite (other useful material)
- Zap development environment
- StrongEd development environment
- !PDF pdf document reader
- Useful links page
- Bug report form
Development suite (manuals)
- PRM manuals 1-4 & 5a
- Updated C/C++ manual (updated)
- Updated Desktop Tools manual
- Assembler manual
- User interface manual
- RISC OS style guide
- ABC compiler release notes (manual later)
32-bit Development Suite available now at the special price of £99 (if ordered before 31st December 2002).
Information prepared by Mike Williams on behalf of Castle Technology Ltd
Contact akalat@kbnet.co.uk