A9Home

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The A9Home is a small form factor desktop computer running RISC OS Adjust32. It was officially unveiled at the 2005 Wakefield Show^[1], and is the second commercial ARM based RISC OS computer to run a 32-bit version of RISC OS.

It is smaller than the Mac mini and housed in cobalt-blue aluminium casing, measuring 168 x 103 x 53 mm in size.^[2] The machine runs on a 400MHz 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.^[3] Although the A9home has been officially released for purchase by end-users, 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.

[edit] References

^ Wakefield 2005 Show Report, Phil Mellor and Andrew Duffell, published 22 May, 2005 (retrieved 20 September, 2006)
^ Photo of Mac mini and A9home, Phil Mellor, published 22 May, 2005 (retrieved 20 September, 2006)
^ A9 gets bluetooth, Andrew Duffell, published 3 April, 2006 (retrieved 20 September, 2006)