The Iyonix PC was an

Acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

-clone personal computer sold by

Castle Technology Castle Technology Limited, named after Framlingham Castle, was a British computer company based in Cambridge, England. It began as a producer of ARM computers and manufactured the Acorn-branded range of desktop computers that run RISC OS. Fo ...

and

Iyonix Ltd The Iyonix PC was an Acorn-clone personal computer sold by Castle Technology and Iyonix Ltd between 2002 and 2008. According to news site '' Slashdot'', it was the first personal computer to use Intel's XScale processor. It ran . History ...

between 2002 and 2008. According to news site '' Slashdot'', it was the first personal computer to use Intel's XScale processor. It ran .

History

The Iyonix originated as a secret project by

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US * Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

engineers in connection with development of set-top boxes (STBs), and has been noted as a successor to the . Pace had a licence to develop RISCOS Ltd's OS sources for use in the STB market. The Iyonix was developed under the code name ''Tungsten'' and uses , which is a version of RISC OS that supports ARM CPUs with 32-bit addressing modes. The sources and hardware design were subsequently acquired by Castle, who developed them into the final product. Castle continued to keep the project a secret, requiring developers to sign a

non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...

. Information was distributed to such developers via a confidential section of the website. Customers were occasionally able to buy the computer as a bare bones system for self-assembly. After speculation on the usenet newsgroups, a website for the hardware was spotted in mid October 2002. Units first went on sale in December 2002. Prices started from £1249. Castle ceased production of the Iyonix after the July 2006 introduction in the UK of the RoHS Regulations. The design was not compliant and Castle did not redesign the Iyonix. Sales continued for another two years via a newly established company, Iyonix Ltd, which enabled Castle itself to circumvent the regulations. On 25 September 2008, Castle announced that production of the Iyonix had ceased and that new units would no longer be available to order.

Features

Features include: Iyonix motherboard

* Standard ATX motherboard and Nvidia video card * Intel XScale 80321 600 MHz

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

processor Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) **Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...

* Two 64-bit and two 32-bit

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

slots (two occupied by graphics and USB cards, two free) * RISC OS version 5 in hardware

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

module, using 32-bit addressing mode. * Support for the Linux operating systemIyonix Linux port established , Drobe.co.uk archives
/ref> * Support for "legacy" Acorn DEBI expansion cards * USB interfacing It was the first time substantial changes had been made to the platform since the release of the

Risc PC The Risc PC is Acorn Computers's RISC OS/ Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched on 15 April 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. The Acorn PC card and software allows PC compatible software to be run. Like the Archimedes, the Risc PC co ...

in 1994. All interim machines had been built on the ARM7500

system on a chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

, which was widely regarded as a single-chip Risc PC. (It incorporated the memory controller, video, sound, IO and CPU logic of a Risc PC, leaving only memory and disc interfacing to be added.) The presence of PCI and USB capabilities, as well as the retained "podule" bus, attracted comparisons to Acorn's aborted Phoebe PC; however, such comparisons should be tempered with Phoebe's proposed feature set, which retained VIDC and 26-bit mode, and although Phoebe was intended to be capable of

SMP SMP may refer to: Organisations * Scale Model Products, 1950s, acquired by Aluminum Model Toys * School Mathematics Project, UK developer of mathematics textbooks * '' Sekolah Menengah Pertama'', "junior high school" in Indonesia * Shanghai Mun ...

configurations, its proposed shipping configuration had been for one SA110 CPU.

References

External links

Iyonix website

Iyonix review
by The Icon Bar
Iyonix review

Announcement of end of production
{{RISC OS RISC OS ARM-based home computers