Gavan Fantom of NetBSD, has imported a new port into the NetBSD source tree, the new NetBSD/iyonix port.
The IYONIX pc is an ARM-based desktop machine. It offers virtually silent operation, low heat, and all the other odds and ends offered by a modern PC. NetBSD is one port closer to a
NetBSD/toaster port.
New NetBSD Port, NetBSD/Iyonix
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Quite cool but I suppose the performance wont be great and the price is £1249, you can get an awesome x86 system for that amount. If you want a silent small system I suppose the small VIA mini-itx(x86) boards or the Pegasos(PPC, 600MHz G3 starts of at $299 if I remember things right.) is the way to go. Anyone know if there is any work made in getting NetBSD or FreeBSD running on the Pegasos?
Yes, it is expensive. For a Thin Terminal or Desktop. I could buy Pegasos or Mac for that price. /me looking to my toaster. Well, I could use NetBSD there. o;-)
Well, with respect to the system being expensive, remember a couple of things:
1) Perhaps a company has already purchased one of these machines. So, it might not be a new purchase for that organization.
2) Gives an alternative to recyle those machines for a different purpose that what a company had already layed out their initial capital expenditure.
In the end, it may not elicte a “wow” for a new purchase; however an existing purchase; potentially it may make sense (IMHO).
There is also a new intel line up:
“The IYONIX pc is the first desktop computer to be based on the intel® XScale™ 80321 processor.”
Not ported yet, but it might be interesting. I am not familiar with the 803211 processor. Any comments from the OSNews readers with respect to this processor?
Not ported yet, but it might be interesting. I am not familiar with the 803211 processor. Any comments from the OSNews readers with respect to this processor?
Its a low power RISC based processor with technology licensed from ARM. IIRC, it doesn’t have an FPU.
As the developer of the Linux port for the machine, it’s good to see another OS on it.
As for them being “expensive” – yes, of course they are, but it you want a fast ARM development system, it’s a good option. A number of companies have purchased machines precisely so they can run Linux on them. NetBSD is now another option.
netbsd is the closest along as far as running on the pegasos if it does not already and it jsut hasnt been released…..freebsd is a little ways off….
Never thought about it as a development platform, sorry, as that they are probably usefull.
Poundsmack: k, would be nice to know how far of it is.
http://www.worldofwibble.com/aboutriscpc.html
indeed a pizza oven port is possible, as demosntrated at the at the Olympia Acorn World (1996) …
http://www.worldofwibble.com/images/riscos/rs-2.jpg
RISC OS looks very interesting from a user interface point.
I would not be able to buy a machine like this for that price.
But it might not be actually that bad considering one use of it – use for a long time. I can’t think of any platform that is capable of surviving a long time with exception of RISC OS and Amiga. Of course you could choose other things to do that but these seem to be made for it. RISCPC 600s apparently can still be upgraded to newer processors and it is over 10 years old if I recall.
yep. They can be upgraded to a 233mhz strongarm cpu and some of those can be overclocked to ~287mhz. Theres also an upgrade from kinetix that is a 233mhz strongarm cpu that has slots for standard pc133 ram and can handle up to 256mb of that iirc. So you could have an x86 card, 233mhz strongarm card with 256mb of ram and 256mb of internal ram. With some other upgrades you can have a *very* nice risc pc