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Where is it, you ask?

These guys have been around for a long time, producing arm based general computers:
http://www.iyonix.com/

Not sure whether it counts as a laptop, but despite the size the Sharp Zaurus CL3200 had all the features of one and used an ARM processor. As for desktops, the Archimedes had an ARM processor (in fact the processor was invented for it) and was an amazing machine in its day. Nowadays, you can get an ARM based desktop machine from Iyonix but they're a very niche product.

It's true, and a real shame that ARM isn't more a more readily-available option for general purpose computing in the standard form factors. Low power consumption and low heat production would be fantastic if I wanted to put together a tiny, silent media centre-style PC. I guess there just isn't the demand for these things, which is a shame from an energy-efficiency view. Iyonix http://www.iyonix.com/ sell an ARM-based personal computer, the heritage of which goes back to the ARM-based workstations manufactured by the now-defunct Acorn Computers back in the late 80s to mid 90s. Personally I think they are far too expensive for what you get, and as they use mostly bog-standard PC components I can't imagine they are terribly energy-efficient, but it's nice to have the option at least.

I think you can buy Iyonix's ARM-based desktop computers.

It's here where begins the meme about ARM2 and ARM3 being lousy chips with only 26-bit addressing because of six stupid processor state flags... I can imagine Steve Furber or Sophie Wilson saying "64MiB will be enough for everybody". Like the x86: "a horrid kludge". [wink]

Simple... run Linux on an ARM-based machine - http://www.iyonix.com/

I was recently introduced to RISC OS on a Castle Iyonix. Pretty neat for a new machine running an OS with some history. There's also something geeky-cool about running an ARM / Xscale CPU on the desktop.

http://www.iyonix.com/ :USB2 is now standard on all IYONIX pc models. For upgrades from USB 1 see USB2

Your "shock" that the number of bits (16) in its sound capability (exactly the same as brand new 2005 Macs and PCs), and number of colours (16.7 million/24bit) in its display (exactly the same as brand new 2005 Macs and PCs) still amuses me...

Second: http://www.iyonix.com/ - RISC OS Desktop computer with USB2, support for a multi-head display system, 10/100/1000 networking.

From that URL:
16-BIT SOUND
RISC OS 5 has full support for 16-bit sound and is able to play multiple concurrent sound tracks.

NETWORK STACK
Full industry standard support for a wide range of networking protocols. With TCP/IP and DHCP built in, connecting is easy.

16 million colour support now up to 2048 x 1536 pixels (was 800 x 600 pixels)

Dude... This OS and hardware used to provide you with photo like graphics, with real-time video capture at a time where a fucking PC could just bear CGA. And look at where it stands now ? 16 bit sound? 16million colours? And you think its not deprecated?

As to that machine; I can see that you don't actually own one. Thats not USB 2.0 my friend, its USB compatible and if you take a little effort you'll see that all those supported devices are USB 1.0 downwards compatible.

As to the laptop: sure. It maybe all so casual for you, fact is that they promised a PC running on fullblown RiscOS back then, multiple times, and could deliver nothing more than a frickin' XP machine. You can talk all you want but the fact that they promised a full product and couldn't do better than a emulator says more than enough.

Its mute... Yeah, you think I mean moot. Mute. One text processor, one graphic image program, one picture viewer.. Get real.

First, it's moot. OK? Not mute.

Second: http://www.iyonix.com/ - RISC OS Desktop computer with USB2, support for a multi-head display system, 10/100/1000 networking.
Do your research before posting about OSes you don't use, mkay?

Third: ah, the laptop issue. I believe laptops come in 2 flavours: x86 and PPC. Would you care to design a third flavour? from the ground up? thought not. The fact that it's an emulated OS is the real moot point. The architecture to run it natively doesn't exist, so they made an emulator. Darned sight quicker than PearPC too. And, as you correctly point out, it's an XP laptop. So it'll run linux too, idiot. As to the price: 2 commercial OSes on one machine costs more than the same machine with only one OS? Surely not!

You're probably right about the "too expensive", but Acorn never produced 16 bit systems: they jumped straight from the 6502-based 8 bit BBC series (Acorn Electron, BBC A/B/B+/Master) to the 32 bit ARM based machines (Archimedes and Risc PC), still available now as the Iyonix. While Acorn itself broke up, the ARM processor they designed for the first Archimedes is now a part of a ridiculous number of cellphone handsets, TV Set Top Boxes and other embedded applications. While the x86 architecture manages 300 million shipments per year, the ARM blows that away at around the one billion mark.

As an aside, that same ARM architecture is pretty popular for running Linux on as well: pretty good for a very compact, low power consumption Linux system like the LART.

Castle's Iyonix system has been very successful since its launch, turning a profit for Castle, so there is definately enough of a market to make launching a new system viable.

" And Brits don't make computers... cause they can't figure out how to make them leak oil. "

If only what you said were funny or true. Besides, lets face it - computers are made in sweatshops in southeast asia, not proper countries like England and America.

C'mon it's not RiscOS, Risc OS or even RiSCOS!!! It's RISC OS.

Also, I bet an http://www.iyonix.com/ running RISC OS 5 can match the responsiveness of your RPC600 ;-)

Yes it is... on a bloated syste, but under RiscOS, apps were sufficiently well written so that they would not crash that often.
And as the machine can just reboot in less than 5 seconds, I am fine, thanks :)

My advice is that you visit this site which a friend has 100% made on his RiscOS machine (might be an Iyonix, that Xscale based RiscPC...) you'll then see how useful this machine can be to a creative mind (did I mention how its ergonomical features just made it even more straightforward for anybody to achieve its goals ?).

the Castle Iyonix has got two PCI-X slots too.

Other companies offering ARM based computers include Ionix and MicroDigital. If you have the cash anything is possible...

Well when Acorn went down in 1998/98, RISC OS also seemed to be up the creek without a paddle. Then out of the blue in late 2002 a little-known UK company suddenly released a powerful RISC OS computer called the Iyonix. Mircals can happen, sometimes. I've been using PCs since 1995, and I am sick of them. I miss my Amiga. If Amiga became re-extablished, I'd actually consider going back to them. But ten years of bungling seems to have evaporated the chances of that happening. It is a pity too, as if someone competent had taken over Amiga in 1994, then it'd easily be several times bigger than Apple is today.

I still think the 680x0 series are the best.

Have you ever attempted to write assembly language for the ARM chips? Things like condition codes on every instruction make it much easier than on any other chip I've used. And machines are still being built (even if they are expensive) - see the Iyonix

RiscOS could get from a cold boot to the GUI in less than 4 seconds on an ARM3/8MHz.
I can't even measure it now on a StrongARM/202MHz, also consider the newest RiscOS powered computer : Iyonix (Xscale/600MHz)...

Ahh, interesting. They seem to have some problems with Linux though:

"Partial/Unsupported:
* Audio (Has stopped working in this release)
* Floppy
* Real Time Clock
* Podules

Kernel issues:
The ethernet driver needs modification to read ts MAC address from eeprom and has instead been modified to read it from its PCI memory as a temporary measure.

Because the real time clock is currently unsupported (boiler plate code only currently), it is recommenend you install the Debian "ntpdate" package if you are on a permenent connection. Otherwise, you will need to use the "date --set" command to set the time.

The USB card is not reset fully on reboot, therefore if you reboot from Linux you will need to reset the machine to regain USB functionality in RISC OS.

X Windows:
X can be made to work with some modification to the X Server using and using the frame buffer. This is very slow and the colours are wrong. We hope to soon have a working accelerated 'nv' driver for the machine."

ARM based desktop you say?
try Iyonix complete with RiscOS

I wouldn't worry - the growth in linux will probably create a feasible market for ARM based PCs like the Iyonix.

Which one do I use at home?

It has to be RISC OS by Acorn.

I wish some person would do a proper study of the various OSes and include this UKmade OS because it rocks!

When using this OS I feel so much more productive and it certainly irritates me the least. Must be the 3 button Mouse it uses, or perhaps it's the way it seems to be put together as it's so easy to add functionally without rebooting for example.

I believe a clone of its Filer part can be found for Linux Gnome under the name ROX.

Amazingly RISC OS has been around since 1990(!) and is quite refreshing to use a GUI that isn't just a rehash of Windows.

http://www.iyonix.com/
http://www.riscos.com/
http://rox.sourceforge.net/comments.php3

The point is that the page has not been removed/altered/etc. and that before modding accusatory messages up, people should take 5 seconds and check the link.

The sad thing is that I had really heard nice things about RISCOS... if it were possible to get an old machine inexpensively in the US, I would have tried it.

That's a bit like saying that you would not buy a second hand 486 with MS DOS on, because a different PC manufacturing company ripped off some GPL code last year to get part of their new system working.

I think a lot of people are getting Castle confused with RISC OS, and in this case even Acorn, who don't exist any more - the code being discussed is for the new Castle Iyonix machine, released just before Christmas 2002. It is the first 32 bit RISC OS machine, and as such needs a 32 bit OS. Castle have released RISC OS 5, which is based on RISC OS which is licensed by Pace, who bought it from Acorn just before they were closed down (about 5 years ago I believe).

It is RISC OS 5 that has the alleged GPL breach; previous versions of RISC OS have nothing to do with Castle, apart from Castle's machines run RISC OS.

As a general comment, it would be nice if people on slashdot spent a little more time looking into the facts before posting.

On a separate note, if you really are interested in getting an old Acorn machine, there are a lot of second hand Acorn machines available at extremely reasonable prices if you're willing to spend a little time looking for it - for example, newsgroups, community websites, magazines (such as Archive, which has a small ads section), or companies which sell second hand RISC OS machines, like CJE Micros.

Yeah, and I see they're selling a *600MHz* 40GB 128MB machine (no peripherals) for UKP1250, or about AUD3750. That's pretty ridiculous; surely about five times the price you ought to be paying for that capability. No wonder they need to resort to stealing other people's code.

Heh, I see they don't even have the guts to run their web site on their own OS:

Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) mod_throttle/3.1.2 PHP/4.1.2 mod_perl/1.27

217.204.38.36:80 * Novell Netware TCP/IP

If you look at their conditions of trading, condition 17 seems to lay claim to the copyright of the product (admittedly this does not explicitly mention the software, though it is arguably implicit). It appears they have not only used the code, they are claiming it is their own.

This needs to be defended very quickly otherwise they could turn the tables and actually sue any Linux distributors for copyright violation by claiming the Linux kernel has copied their copyrighted code.

Based on the image of the motherboard here this box looks to use a standard ATX-factor motherboard (aside from the "podule" bays and rear port arrangement, anyhow). Anybody know who makes the board, and if they are available separately? I don't think I would pay over 2000 bucks for a whole system, but since it uses pretty typical PC hardware, if the board were available for a reasonable price (even "reasonable" like the $500 for some of the open PPC boards) it would be a cool alternative to the x86 orthodoxy, even if its somewhat slow by modern standards (especially in light of the fact that it should be trivial to get NetBSD and probably Linux running on it).

Sure you can, it's a free world, it's just that some of us are waiting for a 400MHz XScale RISC OS machine to replace the existing 206MHz StrongARM models. If the new one is going to be slower, I'll stop saving my beer money...