Work is underway to add support for streaming data from webcams and radios over USB to RISC OS 5. Castle's John Ballance is said to be developing support for isochronous devices with the help of the ex-Pace engineer responsible for the Iyonix USB stack, Dan Ellis.The work could see new gadgets connected to RISC OS computers, with users watching live video from webcams and listening to music picked up in realtime from FM and AM stations. The updates could be released within the next few weeks, sources confidently state.
Dave Higton is also aiming to maintain the Castle USB stack for the company's USB podules. According to Dave, the Iyonix stack and podule stack have separated, and there are features present in the Iyonix stack that are missing from the podule card. Dave hopes to backport these features for podule users if he is granted access to the stack source code.
Speaking at the London RISC OS usergroup, Dave also encouraged more programmers to step forward and write USB drivers. While demonstrating USB development and prototyping devices he has created RISC OS support for, he said writing drivers for both the Castle and Simtec USB stacks was not difficult - although he found the Castle stack easier to write software for. Dave has previously produced a number of USB drivers for RISC OS.
He said: "My message is simple - writing USB drivers isn't very hard to do."
Dave added that if the RISC OS 5 USB stack gains isochronous support and the Simtec USB stack does not, the Simtec solution will be at a significant disadvantage.
Links
Castle USB technical notes
Simtec USB technical notes