A slice of Raspberry Pi

Jul 242011

Back in May, on the RISC OS Open forum, Rik Griffin identified a possible new target for a RISC OS port, from The Raspberry Pi Foundation, “a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.”

The foundation is developing a very small computer, about the size of a USB stick, with an intended price tag of £10 to £15. David Braben – a name anyone familiar with the Acorn and RISC OS worlds should recognise – took a prototype along to the BBC in May to talk about it and the motivation behind The Raspberry Pi Foundation.

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Digital switchover hits RISC OS

Jul 192011

The Risc TV podule from Irlam Instruments was designed to allow users of RiscPCs to watch television through their computers, displaying the TV image in a window on the desktop. Being a device designed and built in the mid to late 1990s, however, it predated the UK’s switch to digital TV by some time, so it’s hardly surprising that its tuner was analogue. This wasn’t a problem while we continued to have both analogue and digital television broadcasts, since the podule could still be used with the analogue signal – while there still was one. Continue reading »

ARMini on the bounty

Apr 062011
ARMini Computer from R-Comp Interactive

As the 2011 Wakefield show creeps ever closer, Andrew Rawnsley of R-Comp has initiated a discussion on the RISC OS Open Ltd forums regarding some areas they’d like to see addressed in RISC OS before their ARMini computer goes from being a ‘coming soon’ to a current machine.

Andrew is quick to point out that they “can’t afford to throw mega-bucks at anything” (an understandable position, given the size of the RISC OS community) and that they’re “basically budgeting money from the ‘pre-order’ pot for dev work.” In some cases, for which he believes the amount of work required is relatively small, the offer is for payment in kind (e.g. free software from their catalogue), rather than money.

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ARMini? There's an ARM in it!

Mar 032011

Following the recent Archive sampler, with its news of a new computer running RISC OS natively that might be unveiled at the South West Show on Saturday, R-Comp Interactive have issued a press release about this new machine, which now has a name; ARMini. Here’s what they had to say:

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