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We're off to see the Omega |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35751, posted by monkeyson2 at 10:09, 5/3/2003 |
 Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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...the wonderful Omega of Oz. Well, Wakefield actually.
I think I'm going to go to this tonight.
Anyone got any specific Omega tests or observations they want doing? Not sure how much chance I'll get to use them, but I'll have a go.  |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35755, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:19, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35751 |
 Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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I think I'm going to go to this tonight. 
Anyone got any specific Omega tests or observations they want doing? Not sure how much chance I'll get to use them, but I'll have a go. How about testing if you can steal one from them? 
Um, er, hm. Bring along a benchmarking program on a floppy. And make sure iconbar get exclusive rights to the results  |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35767, posted by monkeyson2 at 11:50, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35755 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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Gah, you people are hopeless.
One suggestion?
You don't want to see a *HELP MODULES ?
Or the results of a *Unplug PCIManager? (Only joking, Mr Atkins...)
Or the timings of a stupidly complex path interpolation in Draw? Or an experimentation into Mode 7?
How about a plugging in of walkman headphones, just incase they "forget" the speakers again?
etc, etc?
And I put this thread in the playpen because I thought it would get more traffic.  |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35771, posted by Phlamethrower at 12:59, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35767 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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See; you can think of plenty of ideas yourself |
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Gavin Smith |
Message #35772, posted by SparkY at 13:03, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35771 |
 Danger! Danger! High Voltage!
Posts: 697
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Try Tek?
Install Select?
Open up box and check for RiscPC?
Ask Mr Atkins where he is going to license his RISC OS from? |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35799, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:10, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35772 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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I'm going armed with a floppy containing:
1. nbench (as used on drobe's iyonix benchmarks)
2. system (updated !system, for above)
3. sick
4. discspeed
I'm also tempted to put NetSurf on, but I want to leave some free space for saving various taskwindow outputs.
I bet I'm not allowed to use the floppy drive.
NB. If I can't get reasonable access to the Omega, I shall claim that I am a reporter from The Iconbar and demand immediate assistance! |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35812, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:18, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35799 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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I wish I had a digital camera. I've got an analogue one, which means any photos I take will be very delayed in appearing on the net. |
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John Hoare |
Message #35814, posted by moss at 17:18, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35812 |
Posts: 9348
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/me can't wait for report |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35818, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:21, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35814 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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/me can't wait for report Oh, everything I see and do will be under NDA. 
I'll only be able to make cryptic allusions, just like everyone else who apparently knows stuff. |
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John Hoare |
Message #35826, posted by moss at 17:24, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35818 |
Posts: 9348
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #35828, posted by rich at 17:25, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35799 |
 Dictator for life
Posts: 6827
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I usually(1) do...
*spool ADFS::0.$.Spoolfile
*help
*help commands
*podules
*help filecommands
*help modules
*modules
*spool
*status and *show can be informative too.
1Although I've only uploaded the ArthurOS one so far, but the RISC OS 2, 3 and 4 ones are ready, honest...
________
 Cheers,
Rich.
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35829, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:25, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35826 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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If David Hatkins is around, I'll ask him to look into the Real Ingenuity debacle. |
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John Hoare |
Message #35832, posted by moss at 17:27, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35829 |
Posts: 9348
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http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact583.html
Why are you getting flamed, :monkeyson: |
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John Hoare |
Message #35833, posted by moss at 17:27, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35829 |
Posts: 9348
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If David Hatkins is around, I'll ask him to look into the Real Ingenuity debacle. Oh wow, that'd be great. |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35834, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:30, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35832 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact583.html
Why are you getting flamed, :monkeyson: Probably because I  gged mr cocky
________
Happiness is a solid. Joy is a liquid. |
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John Hoare |
Message #35836, posted by moss at 17:32, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35834 |
Posts: 9348
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Probably because I gged mr cocky Tsk |
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Kevin Wells |
Message #35845, posted by Revin Kevin at 19:06, 5/3/2003, in reply to message #35751 |
Member
Posts: 644
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...the wonderful Omega of Oz. Well, Wakefield actually.
I think I'm going to go to this tonight.
Anyone got any specific Omega tests or observations they want doing? Not sure how much chance I'll get to use them, but I'll have a go. You could try my progs to see if they work.
There not much good but it will be nice to know.
[Edited by Revin Kevin at 19:06, 5/3/2003]
[Edited by Revin Kevin at 19:07, 5/3/2003]
________
I did not do it. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35880, posted by Phlamethrower at 08:27, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35799 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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I'm going armed with a floppy containing:
1. nbench (as used on drobe's iyonix benchmarks)
2. system (updated !system, for above)
3. sick
4. discspeed
I'm also tempted to put NetSurf on, but I want to leave some free space for saving various taskwindow outputs.
I bet I'm not allowed to use the floppy drive.
NB. If I can't get reasonable access to the Omega, I shall claim that I am a reporter from The Iconbar and demand immediate assistance! /me awaits the results... |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35885, posted by monkeyson2 at 09:26, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35818 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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/me can't wait for report Oh, everything I see and do will be under NDA.
I'll only be able to make cryptic allusions, just like everyone else who apparently knows stuff.
Unfortunately, it seems that this is the case! No joke! |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35888, posted by Phlamethrower at 09:29, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35885 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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Tsk.
/me slaps MD with a  
Will they notice if you post the results here rot13'd? |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #35889, posted by andypoole at 09:30, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35885 |
Posts: 5558
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/me can't wait for report Oh, everything I see and do will be under NDA.
I'll only be able to make cryptic allusions, just like everyone else who apparently knows stuff.
Unfortunately, it seems that this is the case! No joke!
Aww
________
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Chris Williams |
Message #35890, posted by diodesign at 09:33, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35885 |
 The Opposition
Posts: 269
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Oh, everything I see and do will be under NDA.
Unfortunately, it seems that this is the case! No joke!
What a load of crap, could you drop me an email or post here explaining exactly what kind of ridiculous agreement they put you through? I think I'll phone MD today.
Chris. drobe. not happy. |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35892, posted by monkeyson2 at 09:42, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35890 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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Well, I talked to DA for quite a while, and mentioned that I was from the Iconbar (which is only fair - and I remember somebody from Drobe going to a club meeting and writing it up on their "commercial portal" without telling MD what they were doing, and I didn't want to make that mistake...).
DA said that he didn't talk to Drobe, or TIB, or Acorn User or Archive, or any of them. It was the policy. He said that everything he was saying was speaking totally personally, and to be aware of subdudacy (spelling?). He didn't say this in a nasty way, I think he's getting a bit paranoid about coverage, and he's totally sick with all these lies that people are just making up about them - he's particularly fed up with people making pronouncements about what is and isn't possible (such as ARMtwister) without even ringing them up to ask.
He said he was amazed by the number of readers to Newsdesk, but again, unhappy how everything he wrote was picked to bits on Usenet.
After speaking to him, I think that's all fair doo, and I respect his attitude. If people want to know what's going on, they can ring up and ask MD themselves.
Oh, and he asked me if I was Chris Williams...! |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35893, posted by Phlamethrower at 09:44, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35892 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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I guess that's OK then
And we all know that ARMtwister is powered by enslaved red squirrels - their original codename was NUTtwister |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35895, posted by monkeyson2 at 09:55, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35892 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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I can probably tell you what I saw though. Anyone from the Wakefield group could do that - and as the meeting was open to non members, what everybody heard and saw could be said here.
There were 3 Omegas, with production motherboards fitted with 306Mhz StrongARMs. They could be considered "base machines" - rather like the Risc PC 600 as it was - lots of scope for upgrades.
The three machines were running different versions of the FPGA soft hardware, to show how the development and upgrades can affect the speed of the computers. Note that the physical hardware was exactly the same, only the FPGA software was different.
One was a development system, with the latest development graphics and northbridge FPGAs. Another had intermediate software, and the third was "not up to production level". I only got the chance to play thoroughly with one, and I'm not sure which it was.
They've not shown anyone the production FPGA software yet - that's going to be kept a surprise for the final customers, and apparently will be even better.
Two of the machines had hard disc access of around 46MB/s, (or that could have been 4 to 6 MB/s, depending on what he said!). One had 60-70MB/sec. I had a play with !DiscSpeed, and it had some nice big numbers in the results.
Running FQuake, 640x480, averaged over 23fps.
The machines ran (and would be shipped with) RISC OS 4.03. Bootup time was less than 6 seconds, I reckon.
All the stuff is in the office basically waiting to go out the door. Much to DA's annoyance, there are "issues that have to be resolved". They're playing the long game, not the short game, so a few more weeks won't hurt. Only a handfull of people have cancelled.
The PCI stuff is done by MD, and is done in the Northbridge chip. Access to RISC OS is done via standard SWIs. All written by MD themselves - no GPL code.
USB 1.2 is on board, and they have a USB 2 PCI card. They'll be using the Simtec API, but USB drivers aren't ready for the Omega yet. Simtec's stack at the moment is tied to different hardware; the low level stuff needs to be rewritten.
Someone asked the question about sound. DA said, /with sarcasm/, that they had developed a video chip, a memory controller, a northbridge chip, a motherboard, and a UDMA hard drive controller - but sound was was just too much for them.
I also spoke to David Atkins privately, but I'm not going to discuss that here, for obvious reasons.
[slightly updated for clarity]
[Edited by monkeyson2 at 18:31, 7/3/2003] |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #35897, posted by monkeyson2 at 10:00, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35833 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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If David Hatkins is around, I'll ask him to look into the Real Ingenuity debacle. Oh wow, that'd be great.
Well, I asked DA if he knew the chaps at Real Ingenuity. He said he hadn't had much to do with them, although they did meet at the Wakefield show. He wasn't really in the right position there to say about the deposits. One person has already rung MD - was that you? |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #35898, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:04, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35895 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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All the stuff is in the office basically waiting to go out the door. Good |
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Mark Quint |
Message #35927, posted by ToiletDuck at 13:02, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35898 |
Quack Quack
Posts: 1016
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FQuake being the "Fast Quake" demo?
if so, what numbers do we get running on a SA RPC, Kinetic RPC, and Iy*nix? |
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John Hoare |
Message #36016, posted by moss at 18:05, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35897 |
Posts: 9348
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Well, I asked DA if he knew the chaps at Real Ingenuity. He said he hadn't had much to do with them, although they did meet at the Wakefield show. He wasn't really in the right position there to say about the deposits. One person has already rung MD - was that you? No - I'm waiting for the old head of Real Ingenuity to do that for me. He should get back to be soon... |
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John Hoare |
Message #36018, posted by moss at 18:07, 6/3/2003, in reply to message #35892 |
Posts: 9348
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After speaking to him, I think that's all fair doo, and I respect his attitude. If people want to know what's going on, they can ring up and ask MD themselves. I'm not impressed, I'm afraid. He'll *never* stop dodgy rumours, so he'd be better off getting his side of the story out there.
And his company would look so, so much better if he *did* talk to Drobe/TIB. |
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