IYONIX PC at M25 East RISC OS User Group.

I know there are female RISC OS enthusiasts out there; some I have actually met, but none, as yet, ventured to join the group. Thus the twenty-two enthusiasts who attended the meeting were male, and came from far and wide, one making a round trip of at least 160 miles. We were squashed into a primary school library sitting on chairs designed for five to eleven year olds. This did not dampen spirits and an informative, interesting evening was had by all.

Jack opened the presentation the technical bit, all about the ARM 80321 XScale processor 600 MHz, 64-bit 200MHz DDR memory, UDMA 100HD, all that stuff the goes well over my head, and if you actually understand it and want to know more, you know where to find it. One little technical bit did raise a laugh. Jack asked if the fluorescent lights could be turned off so that we could hear the computer running. He went on to mention the 'theoretical speed increases', the RAM being 25x better and lots of other super increases in speed. Whew! RiscOS 5, it was stressed is only for the IYONIX pc. Guess what? No parallel port. Apparently, "Parallel ports are slightly old hat and USB is certainly the way forward, much faster and more flexible". However, if you are still stuck in the dark ages, like me, a USB/parallel adapter will supplied as an option with each new IYONIX. You may have seen the latest postings on the newsgroups about different software running on the IYONIX. Jack made a point of stressing that all the software that does, or will run in 32 bit on the IYONIX can be found at www.iyonix.com/software which is regularly updated. Jack did not even say 'probably' when he said, "The IYONIX pc is the fastest RISC OS computer ever". I noticed he said 'RISC OS computer ever' and not just 'computer ever'. I wonder if this means that even the IYONIX can still not compete with those other computers that we all use, but do not admit to using. He went on to emphasis that the IYONIX pc gives the industry a fantastic opportunity for the future, in fact for everyone. When asked if there was any likelihood that it might be released this year, the answer was "Ish". My interpretation of ish is 'likely', which brings me back to 'probably' - you never know. On the query about 3D graphics the answer was to watch this space, but not this time round. As to XScale lap tops, we all got a good laugh and Jacks response was along the lines of, lets get the IYONIX pc out to the public and then, when Castle can guarantee orders for millions of lap tops a lap top case can be made for the IYONIX, and we can all have one. When asked how many engineers are currently working on the IYONIX, the answer was eight full time engineers with at least twice as many more working part time. With the incredible speed of which the IYONIX is capable it was wondered if some new super software was being looked at in the Castle camp. The number of extremely able RISC OS engineers out there working on software enables Castle's main emphasis to be on concentrating time and energy on the hardware and enhancing the graphics and the use of 16 million colours.

During a break for a grateful cup of tea or coffee, biscuits and assorted nuts, the projector was changed for the 19" monitor. This was to allow the graphical images to be displayed in all their glory, dancing round the screen without a flicker. The gathering buzzed round the monitor like bees round a honey pot all enthralled by the spectacular display before them. Jack even showed his prowess at ZOOL, what ever that is, I was pleased to hear someone else admit to me that he had never heard of it either.

A 33mb paint file was loaded in a couple of seconds filling the screen with an abundance of blue, which turned out to be sky. It did not take long for the picture to take on its full glory.

One �expert� got his hands on the mouse and produced an 80,000 colour graduation in Draw that took less than a second to generate, something a SA RiscPC would have taken at least 60 seconds to do.

For, I believe, the very first time, the back of the computer, well side actually, was taken off and became immediately surrounded by people looking knowingly into the void and pretending to know what they were looking at � a green board with big black squares on it. I was so impressed.

I�m not sure what was being tried, but the system hiccuped (I think that means something went wrong and it had to be rebooted). The reboot, Ctrl. Break took a mere second or so, which apparently included an attempt to connect to the Internet. That I do call impressive, as my APDL Turbo, Blitz RiscPC600 takes forever, but apparently that is something to do with my !Boot.

After further questioning the following information came to light; there are apparently 25 IYONIX pc computers already in use, secretly being tested, whilst you read this. As to the cost and when it will be available, Jack told us it would be a matter of months, so watch this space and have your money ready!

Finally, the Shift, Ctrl. F12 closed down and switched off the IYONIX in about 5 seconds flat.

As the meeting drew to a close, favourable comments were made about the welcome and hospitality the visitors received. We are not always lucky enough to have a distinguished visitors at the club meetings but what we do have is a group of very knowledgeable and enthusiastic members who can talk about RiscOS computers and issues until the cows come home. Anyone who can get to Junction 28 of the M25 is only 5 minutes away from us. We meet every third Tuesday, at Harold Court Primary School, Church Road, Harold Wood, RM3 0SH. Drop me a line and I�ll put you on my distribution list, BarryWalsh@aaug.net, or look us up on the web http://www.m25eroug.riscos.org.uk.

IYONIX PC web pages