One lucky punter attending this weekend's Wakefield 2005 show will win an A9home, AdvantageSix have confirmed. Earlier this month, the show's organisers hinted that a special prize is on offer in this year's prize draw, although tonight's statement puts the rumours surrounding the event to rest."Wear your lucky pants, socks and baseball cap and you could be walking away with a new machine," said Matt Edgar, of Ad6. The company say they will be demonstrating a A9home machine, as well as other machines from the A9 range. We understand that advance orders will not be taken on the A9home.
The anonymous retail partner for AdvantageSix, who will look after end user sales and support for the eventual A9home product, is also set to make a public announcement at the show. Sources say that all eyes are on CJE Micros, although AdvantageSix couldn't confirm or deny these rumours.
The tight lipped company have decided against announcing further details of the machine, and instead invited people to see the machine for itself at Wakefield. Matt earlier explained to us that he wants desktop users to see the machine as something more than a set of specifications, preferably as an affordable and new machine running a 32bit RISC OS Adjust to replace the now extinct RiscPC and A7000 range. Sources have further claimed that the machine will be competitively priced against existing native hardware - allowing users who wish to upgrade or otherwise buy a new RISC OS system to opt for a more cost effective computer.
An example A9home system was demonstrated earlier this year to the public and selected press, although the machine that will be shown at Wakefield is believed to be an advanced version of this initial model. The A9home is said to be powered by an ARM9 processor, of which several varieties exist, including: the round about 200-400MHz ARM920T, which is aimed at multimedia and PDA embedded applications and the ARM940T, which is used for digital cameras and printers and other such devices. Semiconductor manufacturers such as Samsung usually license processor cores from ARM and build additional features around the processor - from USB and Ethernet to digital camera support.
In 2003, the top prize in the Wakefield show's raffle was an Omega, famously won by The ARM Club and subsequently reviewed by their club magazine despite MicroDigital's attempts to stop members of the press from winning the machine.
Links
A9home in the public spotlight
Lifting the lid on the A9