| Developer | Advantage Six |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Advantage Six |
| Operating system | RISC OS |
| CPU | ARMv5 |
| Storage capacity | 40GB hard disc |
| Memory | 128MB SDRAM, 8MB VRAM |
| Predecessor | Risc PC, Iyonix PC |
| Successor | Touch Book, ARMini |
The A9home is a small form factor desktop computer running RISC OS Adjust32. It was officially unveiled at the 2005 Wakefield Show,[1][2][3] 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 When the Iyonix was withdrawn from sale, the A9home remained the only hardware to be manufactured specifically for the RISC OS marketplace.[4]
It is smaller than the Mac mini and housed in cobalt-blue aluminium casing, measuring 168 x 103 x 53 mm in size.[5] 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.[6] 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.
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,[7] 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.[8] It was intended to be the first in a series of machines, with others running Linux.[9]
Both 26- and 32-bit builds of new RISC OS 4 releases can now be compiled from the same source code,[10] 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.[11]
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