The Icon Bar: ChiBER: RISC OS in a PC box!

The Icon Bar: News and features: ChiBER: RISC OS in a PC box!

ChiBER: RISC OS in a PC box!

Posted by Alasdair Bailey on 00:00, 2/10/1998
Acorn, Games, Hardware, RISC OS, Technology

ChiBER is a new PC-hardware based StrongARM computer system which is currently in development by Jason Tribbeck. The idea is simple; put a StrongARM processor and RISC OS onto a PCI card, slot it into the back of a standard Windows PC and you have yourself a super charged StrongARM machine running current RISC OS applications at speeds possibly higher than those which a RiscPC 2 could achieve. This is because the PC's own Pentium chip could be used to perform FPE, sound or graphics tasks whilst the StrongARM handles the main jobs. Further, the PC's existing sound card and graphics accelerators (3DFX cards for example) would become instantly available to the StrongARM processor!

This development is by all means quite revolutionary to say the least. Just think about it; people who have off the shelf PCs could go out and buy this reasonably priced card and 'upgrade' their PC to a fully functional RISC OS machine. The software interface will probably work in a similar way to the PC card software on an existing RiscPC in that the RISC OS side of things would share hard disc, memory and all other hardware add-ons with the PC.

If the project goes to plan, RISC OS could well have a very secure future even if it is nested within the enemy camp!

When can I buy one?

Well, Jason needs assistance to get his idea from the drawing board into reality. Check out the ChiOS WWW site at: http://www.chios.org.uk/ for technical details.

Announcing this project at such an early stage is primarily to see how many people will be interested in this device. If you would be interested in buying the device, please email Jason at interest@chios.org.uk. If you are interested in helping develop the product, please email develop@chios.org.uk.

But what's all this got to do with games?

The simple answer is: a lot!

For starters, faster, more graphically intensive games can be developed to take advantage of the speed of ChiBER. Also, if the low cost of ChiBER leads to more people turning to RISC OS, there will clearly be a much larger audience to sell to in the future. That means more sales, more profits and then more development and in the long run, more games for me and you!

	ChiBER: RISC OS in a PC box!
	filecore (10:55 29/1/2008) nunfetishist (13:25 29/1/2008) tribbles (16:07 30/1/2008) monkeyson2 (16:54 30/1/2008) Phlamethrower (16:55 30/1/2008) filecore (18:29 30/1/2008) Phlamethrower (18:39 30/1/2008) tribbles (18:44 31/1/2008) gwion (14:20 2/2/2008)

Jason Togneri	Message #106259, posted by filecore at 10:55, 29/1/2008
The Iron Lord and coming soon: Haunted House Posts: 3868	Disgustingly optimistic, wasn't it?
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Rob Kendrick	Message #106262, posted by nunfetishist at 13:25, 29/1/2008, in reply to message #106259
Today's phish is trout a la creme. Posts: 524	Especially given the PCI turn-around would have made many of the suggested accelerations pretty valueless.
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #106269, posted by tribbles at 16:07, 30/1/2008, in reply to message #106262
Captain Helix Posts: 929	Why on earth did you drag this one out??!!??
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Phil Mellor	Message #106271, posted by monkeyson2 at 16:54, 30/1/2008, in reply to message #106269
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler monkeyson.info Posts: 12380	Why on earth did you drag this one out??!!?? There was a link to it from the AA birthday article.
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Jeffrey Lee	Message #106272, posted by Phlamethrower at 16:55, 30/1/2008, in reply to message #106271
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff Posts: 15100	Why on earth did you drag this one out??!!?? There was a link to it from the AA birthday article. I think he meant why this one in particular, instead of some of the other optimistic ones.
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Jason Togneri	Message #106273, posted by filecore at 18:29, 30/1/2008, in reply to message #106272
The Iron Lord and coming soon: Haunted House Posts: 3868	I think he meant that too - based on the fact that it's about him (in a roundabout way, as the developer). It was just the whole tone of the thing; sadly optimistic, when you consider how the whole thing is so redundant nowadays. Jason: whatever happened to this project, anyhow? Did it ever get to the prototype stage, do you still have the plans/parts lying around? Or was it 'reprioritised' to make room for the infamous Steel Cobra III? EDIT: Oh yeah, and the whole Risc-PC-on-a-PC-box is also ironic from the point of view that we now have VA5K and VRPC and technology has moved to the point where we don't even need a hardware solution... [Edited by filecore at 18:31, 30/1/2008]
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Jeffrey Lee	Message #106274, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:39, 30/1/2008, in reply to message #106273
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff Posts: 15100	Jason: whatever happened to this project, anyhow? It was put on hold in 1999 due to lack of funding - http://www.iconbar.com/News_archive_March_1999/news1193.html (Of course I only know this because I was the one who imported all those articles and remember seeing an update about it)
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #106280, posted by tribbles at 18:44, 31/1/2008, in reply to message #106274
Captain Helix Posts: 929	Cobra - I did a bit more work on it last year, while my car was being painted. There are a couple of pictures, but not much more. I need to get some spherical bearings (need a good source of them, too). However, a 5m x 2m x 1.8m steel structure with stepper motors is being built for someone else atm...
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G-M	Message #106293, posted by gwion at 14:20, 2/2/2008, in reply to message #106280
Member Posts: 85	If its a PCI card that would mean you could use it in a Iyonix right? Dnt know why you would want to but still...
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