A9Home
Encyclopedia
The A9Home is a small form factor desktop computer running RISC OS Adjust32. It was officially unveiled at the 2005 Wakefield Show, and is the second commercial ARM based
RISC OS computer to run a 32-bit
version of RISC OS. When the Iyonix was withdrawn from sale, the A9home remained the only hardware to be manufactured specifically for the marketplace.
It is smaller than the Mac mini
and housed in cobalt-blue aluminium casing, measuring 168 x 103 x 53 mm in size. The machine runs on a 400 MHz Samsung
ARM9 processor, has 128MB SDRAM
of main memory, 8MB VRAM
and houses an internal harddisc of 40GB. On the front it features two USB1.1 ports, a microphone
and a headphones
socket. On the rear it has two USB1.1 ports, two PS/2
ports, 10/100 BaseT
network port, RS232 serial port and a power connection socket. Like the Mac mini, it is powered by an external PSU
(5V, 20 W). Furthermore, it has a power/reset switch, a status/health indicator and Drive activity indicator LED. The A9home is not designed to be internally expanded.
The A9home can use a program called Aemulor to emulate older 26-bit
applications. This was originally developed for Castle's Iyonix PC
.
In April 2006, Advantage Six Ltd announced that they are focussing on connectivity in the run up to that year's Wakefield Show. At the show they have demonstrated integrated bluetooth
. Although the A9home has been officially released for purchase by end-user
s, its custom version of RISC OS 4 remains unfinished. To date, RISCOS Ltd
has not commented when, or if, their OS will become feature complete.
.
Both 26- and 32-bit builds of new RISC OS 4 releases can now be compiled from the same source code
, but will have to be modified to run on each individual machine supported, as the OS has no HAL at present. Instead it has a hardware-abstracted kernel, which allows specific code to be substituted for each platform supported.
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
RISC OS computer to run a 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
version of RISC OS. When the Iyonix was withdrawn from sale, the A9home remained the only hardware to be manufactured specifically for the marketplace.
It is smaller than the Mac mini
Mac Mini
The Mac Mini is a small form factor desktop computer manufactured by Apple Inc. Like earlier mini-ITX PC designs, it is uncommonly small for a desktop computer: 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches tall. It weighs 2.7 pounds...
and housed in cobalt-blue aluminium casing, measuring 168 x 103 x 53 mm in size. The machine runs on a 400 MHz Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
ARM9 processor, has 128MB SDRAM
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...
of main memory, 8MB VRAM
VRAM
Video RAM, or VRAM, is a dual-ported variant of dynamic RAM , which was once commonly used to store the framebuffer in some graphics adapters....
and houses an internal harddisc of 40GB. On the front it features two USB1.1 ports, a microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
and a headphones
Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...
socket. On the rear it has two USB1.1 ports, two PS/2
PS/2 connector
The PS/2 connector is a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987...
ports, 10/100 BaseT
Fast Ethernet
In computer networking, Fast Ethernet is a collective term for a number of Ethernet standards that carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s, against the original Ethernet speed of 10 Mbit/s. Of the fast Ethernet standards 100BASE-TX is by far the most common and is supported by the...
network port, RS232 serial port and a power connection socket. Like the Mac mini, it is powered by an external PSU
Power supply
A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. The term is most commonly applied to devices that convert one form of electrical energy to another, though it may also refer to devices that convert another form of energy to electrical energy...
(5V, 20 W). Furthermore, it has a power/reset switch, a status/health indicator and Drive activity indicator LED. The A9home is not designed to be internally expanded.
The A9home can use a program called Aemulor to emulate older 26-bit
26-bit
In the ARM processor architecture, 26-bit refers to the design used in the original ARM processors, where the Program Counter and Processor Status Register were combined into one 32-bit register , the status flags filling the high 6 bits and the Program Counter taking up the lower 26 bits.In...
applications. This was originally developed for Castle's Iyonix PC
Iyonix PC
The Iyonix PC was an Acorn-clone personal computer from Castle Technology. It was released in 2002 and runs .- History :The Iyonix originated as a secret project by Pace engineers in connection with development of set-top boxes . Pace had a licence to develop RISCOS Ltd's OS sources for use in the...
.
In April 2006, Advantage Six Ltd announced that they are focussing on connectivity in the run up to that year's Wakefield Show. At the show they have demonstrated integrated bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
. Although the A9home has been officially released for purchase by end-user
End-user
Economics and commerce define an end user as the person who uses a product. The end user or consumer may differ from the person who purchases the product...
s, its custom version of RISC OS 4 remains unfinished. To date, RISCOS Ltd
RISCOS Ltd
RISCOS Ltd. is a limited company engaged in computer software and IT consulting. It licensed the rights to from Element 14 and subsequently Pace Micro Technology. It continues to develop...
has not commented when, or if, their OS will become feature complete.
History and development
In 2004, RISCOS Ltd privately began work on a version of RISC OS that supported 32-bit addressing modes found on later ARM architectures, RISC OS Adjust (Adjust 32), which is compatible with current ARM processors and designed for both embedded and desktop forms. The first, and so far only, machine to make use of the 32-bit version of the OS is the Advantage6 A9home. It was released in May 2006 after a 12 month Beta testing process, although the current build of Adjust 32, namely RISC OS 4.42, is a prerelease and no final version of the OS has yet been released. It was intended to be the first in a series of machines, with others running LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
.
Both 26- and 32-bit builds of new RISC OS 4 releases can now be compiled from the same source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
, but will have to be modified to run on each individual machine supported, as the OS has no HAL at present. Instead it has a hardware-abstracted kernel, which allows specific code to be substituted for each platform supported.