CASTLE TECHNOLOGY LAUNCH THE HIGH SPEC IYONIX PC Castle Technology Ltd announce the UK launch and immediate availability of the all new 32-bit IYONIX pc. Key features include: Totally new motherboard design XScale 32-bit ARM processor RISC OS 5 64-bit DDR RAM for high speed access at 200MHz UDMA 80GB Hard Drive Support for industry standards (USB, PCI) Dedicated high performance graphics card CD-ReWriter (48x speed) Wide range of bundled 32-bit software IYONIX PC IS GO‘ The IYONIX pc is launched as a high specification model featuring 128MB of 64-bit DDR RAM, an 80GB hard drive and CD-ReWriter for a mouth-watering price of just £1299 INCLUDING VAT. This IYONIX pc features an Intel XScale 80321 processor running at 600MHz, more than 250% faster than the latest StrongARM processors. The first PREMIER BATCH‘ of 50 systems will be available at the Midlands RISC OS Show at the National Motorcycle Museum, NEC, Birmingham on Saturday 30th November 2002. More details on the show at: http://www.armclub.org.uk. Further IYONIX pcs will be available after the show on a žrst come žrst served basis. This high-spec edition of the IYONIX pc is now on sale at a special LAUNCH PRICE of £1299 until 31st December 2002. See separate press release with regard to ordering details, or visit the new Iyonix web site at www.iyonix.com. HARDWARE The completely new motherboard features a hard-wired XScale processor for maximum reliability, with a single slot to accommodate a 64-bit 200MHz DDR RAM card (the launch machine will be supplied with 128MB). With memory prices now much more reasonable it is more cost effective to trade in and replace memory cards as required than to provide multiple sockets. This also improves reliability and avoids occasional problems seen with previous machines using unmatched memory cards. Four PCI slots are fitted, two with a 64-bit bus, two with a 32-bit bus. Two of these slots are occupied with the system PCI cards. Firstly anVidia GeForce 2 MX400 graphics card which gives crystal clear, high resolution modes. Secondly a USB 1.1 expansion card with four USB ports (two ports available on the rear and two ports available on the front facia). The motherboard also accommodates two IDE connectors (one occupied) with UDMA support for hard drives, with an 80GB drive featuring silent technology (less than 3.5bel) fitted in the launch model of the IYONIX pc. A 32-bit EASI podule connector will take a two-slot backplane to accommodate podules, the simple interface standard developed by Acorn. A floppy disc drive is fitted as standard in one of the two 3½" bays. A CD-Writer is fitted in one of two 5¼" bays in the launch model. This supports 48x read, 48x write and 24x rewrite. Sound is to CD quality AC97 with 16-bit soundblaster support as standard. The power supply is a 250watt PSU with two-speed thermally controlled fan offering near silent operation with the low power XScale processor fitted. MicroATX Case The motherboard, expansion cards and built in devices are enclosed in a strong metal cage housed in a MicroATX midi tower case with dimensions 360mm high, 185mm wide and 402mm deep. The front of the case provides a 'Soft-on' power switch, with power on LED and hard disc LED. There is also a recessed 'Reset' button. The 3½" and 5¼" are accessible from the front of the casing if required, and two USB ports are available. The case carries the IYONIX pc logo and branding. At the rear of the machine there is a power-in socket, two RS232 serial ports, 10/100/1000 base T networking port, audio-in socket, Mic-in socket, audio-out/headphone socket, video socket and two USB ports. There is also a hard power on-off switch. Graphics output The video output from the GeForce graphics card provides for resolutions of up to 2048 x 1536 with 16 million colours. Refresh rates run from 60MHz to 240MHz depending on screen resolution selected. Keyboard and Mouse The IYONIX pc will be supplied with UK 105-key USB keyboard and 3-button USB mouse. SOFTWARE RISC OS 5 The operating system is the latest incarnation of RISC OS (RISC OS 5) derived from Pace Microtechnology plc and now fully rewritten in 32-bit format to take advantage of the latest 32-bit ARM compatible processors. RISC OS offers superior productivity and ease of use compared with most other operating systems. RISC OS 5 is feature equivalent to the previously released RISC OS 4.02 but incorporates many new features and a completely new set of desktop icons to give a modern sophisticated look to the RISC OS desktop. USB printer support is now included with an updated version of !Printers. To coincide with the launch of the IYONIX pc Castle will also be selling two USB bubblejet printers, the entry level Canon BJ S330, and the high spec Canon BJ S530D. The Font Manager has also been updated to include support for 16-bit Unicode fonts allowing a wider range of characters within a single font. The normal range of RISC OS fonts will be supplied but with the Euro symbol at its correct position (Alt-4). RISC OS 5 is supplied in flash ROM which means upgrades can easily be made. When the IYONIX pc is powered up, RISC OS 5 is transferred to DDR RAM which provides a faster response. Other software All standard RISC OS applications previously supplied with the operating system have now been converted to 32-bit operation including Draw, Paint and Edit. A number of major applications will be bundled with the IYONIX pc, including Writer+ (word processor with enhanced Word import and export), Fireworkz (spreadsheet with Excel import and export), Oregano 2 (web browser), Messenger Lite (email client), PDF (for reading PDF files), Zool (game), CDBurn (CD writer) etc. In addition many third party applications have been or are being rewritten for the IYONIX pc including Ovation Pro, SparkFS, FTPC, ImageFS (equivalent by David Pilling), Vprotect, ArtWorks Viewer, Organiser, OHP etc. etc. A full list of IYONIX OK‘ registered 32-bit software is available at www.iyonix.com/software 26-bit Emulation A 26-bit emulator called Aemulor is being developed by Spellings Computer Services Ltd to allow existing 26-bit software to run on the IYONIX pc. For further information visit www.aemulor.com Mike Williams on behalf of Castle Technology Ltd 28th November 2002 akalat@kbnet.co.uk