Another Retro Computer returns from the ashes

[the_leander]

This one is for my fellow Brits: RISC OS returns on new cheap hardware.

Still early days of course, but the specs are interesting:

720MHz ARM CPU
PowerVR graphics
256Mb of RAM onboard
Ultra small form factor (nano itx or thereabouts).
RISC OS5

Price? £120

Hmm, anyone else here something that sounded like the pin being pulled on a grenade just then?

[the_leander]

Cool, I was interested in RISCOS some weeks ago. I am Amiga user, but for £120 I would give it a try. Is RISCOS included in the price?

Free is a magic number.

[the_leander]

Why do you care how I spend MY money?

I don't think he meant it that way - I think he was simply comparing this over the X1000. Something I should point out the article does too.

[the_leander]

So what is stopping someone making a cheap little board like that with a PPC processor?

The PPC processor, basically. Outside of telecoms and games consoles they're not very common these days.

Note Dammy's post about the new Effika MX systems - both are produced in relatively small quantities and use ARM yet offer prices and performance competitive with the X86 netbook and nettop markets.

If you want cheap but are allergic to x86, your options are MIPS or ARM.

[the_leander]

Yes, but isn't it interesting that the comments spend more time discussing the C64?

That would be because most of the folks who would be interested in this sort of thing are genuine retro geeks.

I also note that when it is the register saying the X1000 is an Amiga, nobody here is criticising saying, "it isn't an Amiga, not any more than any other modern PC".

Get a life people.

ZOMG people aren't bawwwing and you're complaining? What is wrong with you?

[the_leander]

Do not atempt to infringe damage on our OS4 sect!

We will pursue and destroy all non believers.

X-1000 is the next coming of our saviour

This is the only true religion, world domination is just around the corner!


Now seriously, is the RiscOS port on the beagleboard mature enough? It sounds really interesting.

If you read the article it says that like OS4 for the X1000 the public showing of this was the first time they got it going.

So almost certainly not ready for prime time.

[the_leander]

Target price for the Smarttop is around ~$200 (only ~£13 more than the above mentioned Beagle board).

The quoted price in the article is $149 and I've seen them cheaper than that online.

Otherwise, nice bit of kit (in terms of price, spec and form) you and Dammy have both pointed to!

[the_leander]

Holy thread necromancy!

Interesting stuff. I won't ditch my 1GHz AmigaOne for a 720MHz machine, though, whatever the price.

Very well sir, I accept your challenge!

I see your 1Ghz A1, and raise you (drumroll please)

The Pandaboard!

Complete with dualcore ARM A9 1Ghz cpu, 1Gb of Ram and a display chip capable of outputting 1080p

All for $174 + shipping!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find something to mop up this puddle of drool.

[the_leander]

@Iggy there is a port of Ubuntu for this thing apparently. Also android.

Are you comparing the price of a motherboard alone to the price of a complete system with case, and with PCI-e, PCI, XORRO, SATA, IDE that the other do not have?

The price quoted for the X1000 was afaik for the motherboard alone.

PCI slots that you're going to use for what exactly? There are drivers for what, maybe a dozen PCI cards AmigaOS can use, graphics is taken care of on board. USB ftw. This thing comes with everything you need on a single board to make it usable. What good are these connectors if there is very limited use made of them by the OS?

Seriously though, Xorro? The Xcore is available as a $10 usb dongle.

--edit--

Bah, paolone said it better.

The point is, this board is out there, it's cheap, it's available and performance wise an A9 should do quite well against a G4/5 class cpu.

Oh and the OS's are fast becoming mature for this hardware platform.

Futhermore, you are comparing the Price of a Cpu used on a devices (mobile phones) that only the last 2 years sold more units that computers in all the history of the personal computers

So what? All that means to me is that I get great performance for a low cost. Also very low power requirements = cheaper running costs.

[the_leander]

Then, You can buy only the cpu and it will be more cheap and you own it *rolling eyes*

Don't be a tard.

[the_leander]

I thought the price for the beta board was £1,150. The case is another £150 or so, adding drives memory etc would push it above £1,500 by some, but not a lot. Still looks rather pricey compared to USD 174 for a motherboard though...

Wasn't the cost of the beta board supposed to be subsidised? But yeah.

AmigaOS appears to be aiming for the classes not the masses, but realistically that may be the only way to survive financially.

Its a fine way to go if you've both the product and the name to brand name to justify it.

Given the reaction even of no small number of hardcore supporters though...

Anyway, the reason I put this up, beyond a slight desire to feed my inner troll, is that this is the sort of cool tech that keeps me interested in computers.

Look at the size of the system. If I were to guess I'd say a little bigger than nano-itx. So a bit more than the floor space a box of kitchen matches takes up.

Yet has as much CPU umph as G4 powermac, possibly more graphically.

Doesn't that realisation absolutely blow you away?

[the_leander]

yes Alan,
I'm with you on this one. Its a neat low power system with almost everything you need in a really small form.
What about expansion? The set up documentation shows the system connected to a host (primarily for storage). Is there any way to connect a drive controller to this board. I'm not sure I want to be limited to USB or complact flash for storage.

Unless you're doing ridiculous amounts of very HD intensive work (for instance, using this as a database system), USB should be fine in terms of performance.

Or you could hook it upto a gigabit lan and use a NAS. Either should provide reasonable performance.

[the_leander]

Most people said this about the Amiga 3000 by the time it was new.

Citation needed.

 Or look at apples prices in the 90s.

Hell if we're going down this nonsense road, why not compare it to Multics capable systems from the 60's, compared to them, the X1000 is an absolute bargain!

[the_leander]

Strange then that the Mini-ITX Sam440...

That isn't in production or stock anywhere and hasn't been for how long?

Also wasn't that the one that had some severe issues with regard picture quality?

[the_leander]

I've spent more time than I should have researching the PandaBoard.

Since the board is designed as developers system its got a few rough edges.

Use of full memory increases the chance of crashes.

Have they worked out if this is a Linux issue or a hardware fault?

There are several other causes for boot crashes and run time crashes (like network initialization on boot).

Hmm, firmware issues for boot crashes?

The DVI outputs aren't enabled unit (nor is the LCD output).

What, by default or is it physically not capable of doing so?

Sound files and HD video still may experience some stuttering.

Codec/driver/scheduling conflicts within the kernel. Given similar issues being noted with other similarly powerful hardware I'd be inclined to look at drivers being the culprit with HD video/sound issues.

I haven't checked on how open the PowerVR GPU is to development.

There is apparently a public SDK.

I haven't seen anyone use the expansion bus yet.

Still, it does look neat.

What does the expansion bus offer that isn't onboard?