Category: News

Yesterday, MicroDigital put an updated item on their Newsdesk web page about a new updated FPGA Image (the chip that allows them to implement their "Soft - Hardware").

For those who don't follow the newsgroups, you may have missed the latest update (as I did) to Pete Everett's Kino Amp video player for RISC OS.

KinoAmp is now up to Version 0.32 and is an excellent application that can show off some of the capabiities of a StrongArm Risc PC.

Just to update on the current situation with regard to legal discussions over RISCOS Ltd's licence...

Paul Middleton was apparently travelling when news broke of the Castle Technology statement, but Drobe managed to get hold of a communication from Paul Middleton in which RISCOS Ltd totally refute all allegations. See Drobe's posting of the full statement.

For those whom are not already aware, Microdigital appear to have been listening to some of the noises out there and have made a higher specification laptop available for running RISC OS 4 / Windows XP Professional.

Note: As mentioned in the comments, the Alpha and Alpha Professional run RISC OS under a host Windows XP (Home / Professional)Operating System.

Simtec have recently been updating their USB stack and this is now up to version 1.42.

One of our registered users has submitted this little item for interest.

"For those interested in what might have been, you can purchase the one and only (I think!) Nucleus case in existance on ebay."

The item can be found at:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3021430569

Note: Well the auction ended just under an hour ago. There were 23 bids, the highest being £312 and the reserve was still not met. MyRO thinks that 'astute nick', in setting a high reserve price on the Nucleus, was not so astute after all! Looks like this piece of nostalgia is set to gather dust in its original home.

As we get closer to the Wakefield show, more exhibitors are booking all the time. If you've not looked recently, check out the show website for the latest details.

The VirtualAcorn ccrew in the form of the Mercurial Aaron RISCWorld Timbrell has sent us an very interesting couple of tidbits...

First off, is that VA is happy to run anything compiled using the new 32 bit tools from Castle. Now there is no excuses for not using VA as a tool to program new apps for RISC OS.

Interesting bit of news on the GCC mailing list today. Peter Naulls, he of the numerous pay for schemes and general extremely talented programmer person, has announced over on drobe that he has made an "experimental version of GCC" which is 32 bit happy.

More details on drobe

The folks at RISCOS Ltd have announced that the second release of the Select scheme is now available for download.

This just in...

GCC is a free collection of compilers that provide the user with a powerful tool for translating C, C++ and Fortran source into fast ARM assembler that is suitable for execution on RISC OS.

GCCSDK is a portable build environment for creating ARM executables to be run natively on RISC OS. The build environment is designed to be hosted on a Unix-like system, such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris.

This is the second release of GCC 2.95.4 and focuses mainly on useability bug fixes, compiler and C run-time library fixes.

The compilers are large programs and will require at least 6Mb of free memory to execute, so you will either require a RiscPC or a an 8Mb machine. See the GCC website for download information.

We consider this to be the best version of GCC for RISC OS and recommend that all existing users upgrade to it. The compiler toolset should be considered stable.

For full download instructions, mailing list information and bug reporting instructions, please visit the GCC website - The main distribution for GCC.

Discounts seem to be all the rage now. First John Kortnink reduced the price of his Viewfinder card, then we get these..

Clares are pleased to announce the latest price reduction on LCD panels, we can now supply the following

• AOC 15" Silver 1024x768 LCD 295(UKP) inc VAT and carriage
  
• AOC 17" Silver 1280x1024 LCD 429(UKP) inc VAT and carriage.
  

This is followed by this gem from Castle

EPSON A4 USB SCANNER (MODEL 1660 - PHOTO)

• 48-bit colour scanning
  
• True 1600 x 3200 dpi scanning
  
• Built in transparency unit
  
• High speed scanning (A4 scan at 300dpi takes about 26s)
  
• TWAIN 2 driver included
  

Cost...

SCANNER PRICE ukp199
Castle's 4/port USB podule ukp59
D Pilling's Scanning Software ukp20

For more information, have a poke around at Castle's website

And finally today

New permanently low price for RISC OS 4 upgrades

Following the securing of further OTP ROM supplies RISCOS Ltd is pleased to announce a new permanently low price for RISC OS 4 upgrades.

With immediate effect the full RISC OS 4 ROM pack is now available for ukp85 including VAT. For users who want to upgrade more than one machine a set of ROMs only is available for ukp75 including VAT.

Discounts are available for Dealers, Authorised Installers and User Groups who place orders in bulk.

Orders may be placed by Cheque or Credit Card by Post to:-

RISCOS Ltd
3 Clarendon Road
Cardiff
CF23 9JD
Tel 02920 492324
Fax 02920 492326

Mike Williams, former head honcho of Acorn Publisher, has emailed in to us with the full drop on the new baby from Castle. Hang onto your knees folks - this stuff is HOT!

Iyonix Motherboard

• All new design
  
• ARM XScale processor (80321)
  
• 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 podule bus
  
• Gigabit networking (10/100/1000 base T)
  
• Technical Reference Manual (to be published)
  

Tasty or what! - Now read on....

The Simtec wizards have been doing what they're best at - providing top notch hardware and the (unlike some companies) the technical data to back it up.

Recently, the riscos-usb website has been updated to include such gems as

• Simtec will be giving a presentation on USB at the Southeast show (13.00 in the theatre)
  
• A new release of the USB software is available - users should download and upgrade.
  
• News about the recent Acorn User review (incase you missed it)
  
• Printer Definition files available for a wide selection of HP printers from Jonathan Briggs
  

The site is well constructed, contains loads of developer and user info and can be seen here in all it's glory.

Not being content with new hardware coming around, we are seeing software updated for the new 32 bit OS. In a very large posting from our best mates at Cerilica, the first of the new breed of 32 bit software seems to be hitting the streets at the same time as the new hardware....

Cerilica Vantage goes 32bit


Following recent announcements of exciting new hardware developments on RISC OS web portals such as www.iconbar.com, Cerilica can finally reveal it has been working hard on a 32bit full upgrade version of its leading design and publishing software - Cerilica Vantage. This will allow Vantage to take advantage of the extra processing power offered by the next-generation ARM-based 32 bit-only RISC processors.

A two stage upgrade path is now being planned which will finally release key features already working in development versions and allow users an option to gain further new features. Bug fixes have also been a priority as well as fixes specifically targeted towards OS variations. Release dates will partly depend on external factors but we will post firm information about these events closer to the time.

In the meantime, you may wish to attend the forthcoming South East show where the latest development version of Vantage will be on display and demonstrated.

These are exciting times for the RISC OS platform. Cerilica Vantage has already been demonstrated to work on the long-awaited Microdigital Omega and we believe a choice of hardware can only be a good thing for the market. Our policy to is to cater for as many viable RISC OS platforms as possible to ensure our products have the largest potential user base.

Cerilica Vantage is available from only 175.00ukp fully inclusive of VAT and package and postage (UK) and is supplied with an on-screen and printable PDF manual. A comprehensive printed manual (over 230 pages) is also available as an option.

You want more from Cerilica, well, read on!

Available NOW.

Simtec Electronics are pleased to announce immediate availablity of their USB interface for RISC OS machines. Basic cards with drivers for mice and keyboards cost £79 plus VAT and carriage from one of our development partners.

In case it's passed your attention, the Microdigital website seems to be getting updated now more often than something which gets updated quite frequently.

It has tonnes of news, very interesting developments on the software front (I'm intregued to say the least over the three pronged attack) and of course, news of their Omega machine.

Note to other RISC OS hardware companies

Follow the lead set by MD. Give us information!!!

Archive Publications, publishers of the ever green and well respected subscription only magazine, Archive have announced a new magazine - Living with Technology.

Paul says in the latest Archive

"Ah, but what is it about?

"Well, technology is here to stay, and with the speed which it changes is likely to increase tather than decrease in the years ahead, so we have to live with it, like it or not. The new magazine will aim to help you keep up with the changes, understand what is going on and what the newer technologies involve."

riscos.info went live a couple of days back and it looks to have the makings of a really good site for those in the arena who use C as their main development languages.

Simtec have now released the first pictures of their new 100Mb ethernet NIC card for Risc PCs. The Net100 has 512k of flash memory on board and includes RISC OS driver software.

On Tuesday 26th March, BAUG (prn. "borg") - the Bottisham Acorn User Group, near Cambridge - will be playing host to a VERY special presentation, by an un-named company...

Note: Unfortunately, this event was postponed at the very last minute. On usenet, it was noted that this was a provisional arrangement.

Please can those submitting ensure that if there is a change, we are told so we can update the announcement previously made?

Thanks