Reminder announcement reveals name for R-Comp’s new computer.
With the Southwest Show1 set to take place in less than a month’s time, Andrew Rawnsley has sent out an announcement for the event, organised by R-Comp and Orpheus Internet, to serve as a reminder.
This year, the rubber-dated show is taking place on Saturday, 21st February, with the doors open to the public from 10:30am until 4:00pm – and, as usual, the venue is the Webbington Hotel, Loxton, which is a short drive from Bristol, and an even shorter one from Weston-Super-Mare.
In his announcement, Andrew expressed a belief that the Southwest Show holds the record of longevity for a show being held at the same venue, as a regular event on the RISC OS calendar – and I believe he is correct. The possibility of a Southwest show was talked about after the success of the Southeast show in 1997, which took place on 5th July that year. The show was subsequently confirmed, and all the necessary arrangements made – the date was to be 7th February, 1998.
That means this is the eighteenth show (making it seventeen years old2), and throughout that time it has only ever been held at the Webbington Hotel. A certain other regular RISC OS Show may be older as a show – but it can’t lay claim to having taken place in the same venue for as long as the Southwest Show.
The expectation is that this will be the most exciting Southwest show since Andrew joined forces with Richard Brown to take over the event’s organisation, a few short years ago. There are several new exhibitors lined up, along with many of the usual suspects; provided all goes to plan, there should be at least one notable new software release; and, finally, the show should see the launch and initial availability of R-Comp’s groundbreaking new i.MX6-based computer.
That computer was previously being referred to as ARMini.MSX ARMini.MX6 but in his announcement, Andrew has called it the ARMSX ARMX6.
Firm details and a final specification on the new machine have yet to appear – but ongoing progress reports have been emailed to anyone who signed up to ‘express interest’ in the project, and Andrew has recently commented on the Icon Bar forum, saying he hopes to be able to release more information to the public soon.
The best way to find out about it, though? Come along to the show and see it for yourself!
!ReadMe
- The show is called the SouthWest Show by the origanisers, and here on RISCOSitory I’ve tended to add a space to make that South West. However, a little checking suggests that it is okay to use either Southwest or South-west (capitalised here because we are talking about the name of the show), and the version without the hyphen looks better to me – so henceforth on RISCOSitory, it will be referred to as the Southwest Show.
- The Southwest Show wasn’t the only RISC OS birth in February of that year. The very first Acorn News Service newsletter was published on 18th February, 1998, making it eleven days younger than the show, although the anniversary falls three days before this year’s event.
