Although it was introduced only a few short years ago, being announced shortly before the 2024 South West Show, the VENOM computer from RISCOSbits is now being discontinued.
According to RISCOSbits’ Andy Marks, the last VENOM system left the company’s base of operations earlier this week. He went on to eulogise the range, noting that “it has been our most successful machine to date, selling more than any other system we’ve produced, although our FAST NVMe systems are hot on the heels.”
“This has been especially surprising,” he added, “given its relatively short lifespan, but has been due, in no small part, to our excellent FreeNVMe drivers, developed in conjunction with RISC OS Open and Stader Softwareenwicklung.”
With the end of the VENOMous era, however, the RISCOSbits website has been updated with a new machine or two (or more like one and a half):
The PLUS FIVE is technically the ‘and a half’ above, in that it is an add-on for the DIY THREE system, which adds a Linux board to it, in the form of a Compute Module 5 running at 2.3GHz, and equipped with 4GB RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage, with NVMe available as an option. This turns the DIY THREE into a powerful interconnected/hybrid RISC OS and Linux system, and is available to existing DIY THREE users for £169.
If you don’t have the DIY THREE, you can buy the complete package of a DIY THREE along with the PLUS FIVE in the form of the new STACKER DIY kit, at a price of £369. The RISC OS side of the kit includes a Raspberry Pi Compute Module running at 2-2.2GHz, with 4GB RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD, with a 32GB eMMC reserved for the operating system and boot image. The Linux side is the PLUS FIVE as above, and the whole thing comes with a stylish and compact case – and if you add £30 to the price, RISCOSbits will put it together for you, so it comes ready to plug in and go.
For more details of these options, refer to the DIY page on the RISCOSbits website.
RISCOSbits also notes that, unfortunately, prices on the website have now started to reflect the changes – increases – in memory prices that are starting to impact the computing and technology industries as a whole.
