Ad6 hype ARM7 and ARM9 kit - RISC OS News, Software and Information

Ad6 hype ARM7 and ARM9 kit

Published: 13th May 2005, 18:25:23GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By Chris Williams

Page 1 of 1

Believe it when we see it

The AdvantageSix team have thrown their hat into the ring by confirming that they will be demonstrating their mysterious RISC OS 4 and ARM9 powered hardware at the Wakefield 2005 show. The secretive company claim they'll have their "A75 industrial control range" and A9 series present at the event, plus kit from from their "control and monitoring catalogue".

We note that Ad6 appear to have no catalogue online nor any trace of a web presence bar their skeleton website. Sources close to AdvantageSix have recently speculated on all manner of new RISC OS powered possibilities from the tight-lipped organisation, ranging from new desktop hardware in the form of the A9home to a RISC OS laptop. Ad6 have so far declined to confirm or deny whispers that they are readying a new portable computer.

When the A9 initially appeared, we feared it was another case of pre-announced vapourware - possibly a political move in the continuing RISC OS 4 vs. 5 divide across the market. Our cynicism was later dampened when Drobe man Martin Hansen saw an A9 system with his own eyes. While some other members of the RISC OS press have enthusiastically endorsed the machine, AdvantageSix have stressed to us previously that there's still no firm commitment to produce a desktop ARM9 powered computer. For now they're concentrating on building up OEM clients, who need reliable real time embedded solutions.

In their surprise announcement today, AdvantageSix said: "We will be showing some of the products we have recently been working on, which will illustrate the directions that Advantage Six are taking with technology which will be familiar to visitors."

They go on to state that the Wakefield demonstrations will "make clear how our OEM work feeds back into the retail market place and will be interesting and relevant to show-goers". We're not sure if this is a subtle reference to the Birmingham show last December, where Castle wheeled out an old development board in an attempt to dazzle us with RISC OS 5 running (partially) on an ARM9 processor. It didn't receive an overly warm welcome from punters, so we'll therefore be interested to see how end users receive Ad6's industrial control appliances.

With AdvantageSix and its product range being such an enigma, guarded behind closed doors, the Wakefield show should prove to be a refreshing eye opener. Fingers crossed. Ad6 were unavailable for immediate comment.

Stuart Tyrrell Developments, the desktop RISC OS facing side of the Ad6 business, will also be closed from May 17th to 25th, as the team prepare for the forthcoming show, although you can call their fancy "Wakefield Show Order Line" hotline on +441706 848 741.

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Revin Kevin 13/5/05 6:42PM	Looks like it will be an interesting show. It seems like Ad6 have been busy, which is good news for all RISC OS users.
johnpettigrew (+2.0) 13/5/05 7:28PM	I'd guess that genuine industrial equipment would be welcomed - the radar people from Denbridge Digital have always had a warm welcome at RISC OS shows, for example.
IvanDobski 14/5/05 9:45AM	*In reply to Ricnev:* Why would VirtualAcorn have anything to do with a native laptop anyway?
AMS (+2.3) 14/5/05 1:07PM	*In reply to Chris:* You intepret a quote from Ad6 that they would "make clear how our [Ad6] OEM work feeds back into the retail market place and will be interesting and relevant to show-goers" as "We're not sure if this is a subtle reference to the Birmingham show last December, where Castle wheeled out an old development board..." Thing is Ad6 did NOT infer that - what's more any reasonable, rational and unbiased person would not seek to read such an interpretation into it. I believe the Ad6 quote was a more positive statement about what they are about. Ad6 also showed development boards before many of which would not find their way into desktop RISC OS products, there is a possibility another version of them might (great) - so how does that differ from what Castle's offering ? Why do Castle deserve to get clobbered because they showed the sort of work they do and Ad6 get praised for doing exactly the same thing ? RISC OS users, being generally interested in things computational, would if Ad6 (or Castle for that matter) demonstrated an industrial controller using RISC OS be interested in this even if it were not directly relevant to their own requirements. When I read Peter Naull's articles they don't slag off anyone, they deal with technical issues in an impartial, informed and scientific way. Chris unfortunately your articles can, from time to time, tend simply to slag off anyone who currently has raised you ire (usually Castle). Unfortunately the negative sarcasm present in some of your articles devalues them as they otherwise are fine, well written and informative. If the article is an "opinion" piece it should be clearly flagged up as such and people will make the appropriate inferences.
moss 14/5/05 1:39PM	Oh, Chris is sarcastic about everyone. There's no bias.
moss (+1.2) 14/5/05 1:41PM	And people are intelligent enough to work out what is amusing sarcasm, what is supposition, and what is useful information.
jc (+1.2) 15/5/05 10:51AM	Chris clearly knows what he's talking about even though his comment about a previous show is pure speculation and an obvious journalistic strategy to link Castle when there is no news from that area. The Ad6 release has to be seen as referring to a bit of history, parallel development, or something that leads to a product for our market. It has been ovious for some time that the A9 project was not vapourware even if some of the speculation had to be wrong. The demonstration that Martin Hansen saw, and the Qercus article from the beginning of the year, made it very clear that there would be something of interest to see later in the year. In the Qercus article we quoted from Matt edgar at Ad6 "It's been a challenging year [2004], and we're extremely excited to see everyone's efforts and hard work finally reified.". See you all at Wakefield!
jc (-1.2) 15/5/05 11:42AM	And I'd love to know why my posts are automatically moderated down. Apologies to Matt for giving him a lower case "e" - and the bit I missed: We should all be up to date with the information that has been in the public domain since February (about the development done in 2004) and Wakefield is our chance to see the continuation of that work in 2005. What AMS seems to be missing is that all the Ad6 developments (complete machines - not development boards) that have been publicised make sense as preparation for the A9 - and all this was released months ago. Stuart Tyrrell even discussed the development steps at RONWUG and at the Wakefield group a year ago.
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