London Show, Sat 29th October 2016

If it’s PCI, no. If it’s PCIE and with support for Titanium… You have a potential first buyer :)
To get a modern PC card for modern hardware will be really appreciated (for me).

It’s neither. It merely physically fits in the space occupied by a PCI/PCIe slot. It doesn’t connect to the motherboard in any way. It will run on the Titanium though.

It’s more of a software/non-proprietary hardware solution.

If price/integration/performances is correct, why not.

The problems here are to get power from the same PSU as the computer, to be able to power on/off it from the computer, and the link between the two (as Titanium has two Ethernet ports, it should not be a problem here, but will RISC OS be able to define a bridge to get an Internet access from the PC?).

The problems here are to get power from the same PSU as the computer

Easy – done!

To be able to power on/off it from the computer

Sort of – other options are being explored! Powering on automatically is easy, powering on on request is in process, powering off is easy.

the link between the two (as Titanium has two Ethernet ports, it should not be a problem here, but will RISC OS be able to define a bridge to get an Internet access from the PC?).

Possibly! For more information, to make some of this work, you may wish to have a look here

;-)

I, um, have pretty much never used twitter before

Glad I’m not the only one!

So in summary:

The GeminiX is a small x86 compatible computer that is installed inside a RISC OS computer and used for running Windows? Could this run Linux too? Any more spec available?

The case on offer has a built in mSATA slot and turns the Pi into a small computer for about £150 if you already have a Pi?

When will these be for sale?

Glad I’m not the only one!

Dislike the concept and implementation with a passion.
Pure waste of electron flow.

So in summary:
The GeminiX is a small x86 compatible computer that is installed inside a RISC OS computer and used for running Windows? Could this run Linux too? Any more spec available?

Yep!

The case on offer has a built in mSATA slot and turns the Pi into a small computer for about £150 if you already have a Pi? When will these be for sale?

For now, please message me using the contact page here

The GeminiX is a small x86 compatible computer that is installed inside a RISC OS computer and used for running Windows? Could this run Linux too? Any more spec available?

The Gemini board was (is if you have one, they aren’t made anymore) a x86 card with some interface logic to allow it to run as a second processor in a RISC PC.

The software, for which source is available, is 26 bit only¹ and the cards were 486 and 586 processors. This gives you an idea of the age of the cards and the low clock speed as a result.
Running Windows 95 was possible.
Anything more recent in Windows terms would probably require new build cards with better processors and a magically updated address and data bus for the RISC PC.
A similar concept involving a PCI slot on a modern ARM board and a suitable software set is probably technically possible, but of unlikely commercial merit.

Given these restrictions updating it for RO5 use is probably only of educational² interest.

¹ Most of the non-32 bit code is either 26bit entry/exit elements or the use of assembler/C mostly being used to replicate, and avoid the use of, OSLib content.
Mostly it isn’t difficult to modify and rebuild in a 32 bit compliant form. Honest.

Following that description of the history, I assume David saying GeminiX and the teasers on the RISCOSBits site imply that someone thinks a card based x86 is commercially viable.

I mean GeminX…
Can’t say it will be viable. RISC OS at a whole is not viable anyway :)

But I use it and an option to integrate a PC in a RISC OS box is important for my goal: using RISC OS again as my main platform. I could say also that PC are linked to RISC OS since day one. It’s an important part of the Archimedes/RiscPC history.

With RBG problem solved, Titanium and Pyra could be the (my) solution. It seems to be a rich people problem, or a geek one. It’s not. I work a lot… and it’s much pleasant if I can make it the way I like. I give lots of money to make it possible :)

London Show 2016

Just a quick post to give some highlights.

Archive 24:2 was issued at the show and had six pages of news about the show, so I won’t repeat those.

I attended some of the theatre sessions, fewer than I would have liked as I had a number of things I wanted to buy, do and discuss at the show in between demonstrating my ‘GPS on RISC OS’ thingey. I had two battery powered Pi+GPS machines one using a Pi Zero and one using a Pi model A+. I turned them on just after 10 a.m. and one lasted until 4.15 p.m. and the other lasted until 6 p.m., just long enough to demonstrate it to Matthew Phillips as we walked to the railway station!

CJE Micros
-———-
Chris Evans reminded us that the last truly native portable solution was the Acorn A4 in 1991. He said that the PiTopRO has been available for about a month now, priced at £499 and contained a model 2 Pi, with an option for a model 3. He noted that ARM v8 compatability might present issues with the model 3, especially where an application had been compiled with older Unix libraries. The portable came with a PowerSave module (which turns the backlight down and thus improves battery life) and CPUClock so that processor temperature could be monitored. Wifi can be set up with the !Otter browser provided and there were controls for screen brightness and contrast.

PhotoDesk 3.12 had prevailed for about four years but an upgrade to 3.14 was now available to overcome problems on Pi 2, Pi 3, IGEPv5 and Titanium: it now copes with LTRGB modes, 64k modes on the Pi and with the zero page protection. Also progressive JPEGs were now supported.

ROOL had announced that the NutPi SD card had now been updated for the Pi model 3 but he noted that the update for PhotoDesk had not made it in time but that PhotoDesk 3.14 had addressed this issue and users should contact CJE about the latest changes to PhotoDesk.

The Rapido Ig and Rapido Ti: dual monitor output (where the desktop is split between two separate monitors) was still a bit fiddly so he was making no guarantees in this area. He noted that a 1920×1920 screen existed but that ‘if you had to ask what the price was then you probably couldn’t afford it!’.

Rapidly bringing the talk to a conclusion, he noted that a pair of USB speakers and an optical ‘no scroll wheel’ mouse were both now available at a more reasonable price. A pressure sensitive graphics tablet was being demonstrated on the CJE stand using PhotoDesk (where pressure sensitivity was already built in). The tablet was PaintPal compatible and was around £100.

Sine Nomine
-————
Matthew Phillips introduced version 1.40 of RiscOSM which had some new features: it could present a map which followed a GPS location produced by !SatNav – by default (with no GPS signal present) a simulated walk around Midford was generated and communicated (as if it were a GPS signal) by messaging between the two applications. He showed the marker following this trail, RiscOSM could be asked to remember the route or to stop listening.

By registering, an inventory of Edinburgh’s buses could be obtained, as if requested by a browser, showing (in a ‘CSV’ file which RiscOSM would open and process) the position of each bus. Another new facility was to trace a route between two points in a special way, i.e. not just as a straight line between the two points but following roads, footpaths, railway lines etc. based on a stated mode of transport as a menu option.

ROOL
--
Steve Revill said that he would review what had happened in the last year, since the last London show; describe the update to the NutPi; talk about the bounty process and provide a preview of the near future.

ROOL was now ten years old (since June 2016). The NutPi was a joint venture with commercial software providers to showcase cut-down versions of their software for the Pi. The model 3 (ARM v8) had introduced two issues – it was less easy to ‘lock down’ software to run on the Pi only and the lock down mostly failed to recognise the model 3 was permitted. Also ARM v8 compatability where some instructions were no longer supported. The Nut Pi had now been updated to include the model 3 and was on sale from the ROOL stand.

Turning to the Bounty scheme he noted that the JPEG bounty had been successfully implemented and Paint, Draw, ChangeFSI and Pinboard as well as the OS had all benefited. EDID work was currently under testing and the Paint and USB bounties had been claimed and were being worked on. New bounties being considered included the RISC OS network stack and WiFi.

He drew attention to a few projects which were not yet quite complete but were ‘coming soon’:
A new RISC OS Pico release was imminent, which would include the model 3.
A new RC-xx SD card image was a ‘few weeks away’, would include GPIO fixes and was expected ‘this side of Xmas’.
An update to the DDE with zero page fixes was waiting on two things – video driver and ‘delete on power on’ (and similar start up adjustments) during HAL initialisation.
The RISC OS User Guide was 52% complete.

A suggestion was made that where bids had been made for a bounty then the ‘progress’ could show not just ‘money received’ but also ‘money equired’ – Steve offered to look into this.

Chris, you were doing a great job on the stand every time I walked past. I wrote up some notes on the stands at the show and they are on Iconbar athttp://iconbar.com/articles/2016_London_Show_report/index1312.html

Ident was the highlight of the show for me, as their aim is to bring new people into the platform. It was really interesting to see schools wanting BBC micros back!

Hi Mark,
I didn’t see a note on the IconBar article about the AMCOG stand. Not sure if you had time to see the new game I released at the show and was selling on CD . Please would you add a note to the IconBar article about it? I’m seeing if I can upload Mop Tops to the PlingStore tonight.

Thanks,

Tony Bartram
www.amcog-games.co.uk

Hi Mark,

Maybe a bit about the BBC Broadcast Stuff? Mostly as that was also new this year :@)

Thanks for the bit about RiscDJ :@)

I missed the Amcog – so much to see. Sorry, I have now added a bit about it.

Thanks Mark.

Before the new year arrives, it’s time to complete the RISC OS show
timetable for next year by announcing the date for the London Show:

For those that were unlucky enough to miss this year’s show there is
Vince Hudd’s epic show report on RISCOSitory:

There are a some other write ups and pictures on the show website,
along with links to the videos of the theatre presentations:

Plus banners for adding to your website to start advertising next
year’s show!

Hope to see you all there.