Iyonix PC
Adam L January 01, 2002Specifications
Item | Value |
---|---|
Era | 2002 |
Built | |
Condition | Working |
Name | Iyonix PC |
Case | Castle Technology ATX+ |
Motherboard | Bespoke |
Chipset | ALI M1535+ SB / PLX PCI 6154 Controller |
Socket | None |
Processor | Intel XScale 80321 |
Speed | 600 MHz |
RAM | 512MB DDR2 200MHz |
Storage | 120 GB IDE |
GPU | GeForce 2 MX 400 PCI |
A rare British-built PC from a company called Castle Technology uses a single 32bit ARM processor built on the ARMv5TE microarchitecture.
Castle Technology Ltd. also produced the Risc PC and A7000+ after acquiring the rights from Acorn in 1998.
They stopped manufacturing this machine in 2008 after it was deemed unviable to continue with its successor since x86 was now significantly outpacing ARM in performance, was far cheaper and had a far larger choice of compatible software/hardware.
This machine originally retailed at £1099 which includes a CD-RW drive.
A unique feature of this computer is whilst it uses a mostly ATX compatible chassis, it retains the ability to use Acorn podules through large expansion slots on the back (seen above the back panel connectors) and a PCI-to-Podule backplane.
This PC runs the ARM-based RISC OS (Current version 5.28), it also has an Intel PRO 1000 Network controller as it seems the onboard Intel NIC is no longer functional.
This version of RISC OS also supports USB HID Devices, meaning a standard USB PC keyboard and mouse can be used, a 3-button mouse is essential for RISC OS to be operated.
In January 1999, Pace purchased some rights to divisions of Acorn Computers, namely set-top boxes and ultimately owned the RISC OS.
In 2003 Castle Technology purchased it from Pace and then in 2018 RISC OS Developments acquired Castle Technology Ltd and with it the RISC OS Intellectual Property.
RISC OS is now under the stewardship of RISC OS Open Ltd.
High-resolution photos to come shortly, these are of the actual machine but are low resolution, click the thumbnail to enlarge.