The Icon Bar: News and features: RCI Announce RISCBook
Posted by Richard Goodwin on 10:36, 8/12/2003
| RISC OS, RISCOS Ltd, Video, Hardware, Mobile computing, Emulation, Acorn
![[RISCBook]](http://www.iconbar.com/pressreleases/rcomp/0312071357000123/thumbs/rbook.gif) Jumping on that emulation bandwagon this month is R-Comp Interactive, with their snazzy new Centrino-based notebook. The attractive blue and silver machine has a 1.4Ghz Intel Centrino mobile processor, which runs RISC OS 4 at about twice the speed of a StrongARM machine. There is a bit of a power hit however - RISC OS will "only" run for 2.5 hours on battery power as opposed to 5 or 6 hours under Windows XP (also included in the asking price). However, as my AMD-based laptop only runs for about an hour and a half these days no matter what OS it's running, I still think that's pretty fair going. You also get a 40GB hard drive, wired and wireless networking, DVD/CDR drive, TV out, card reader and all sorts of goodies for a reasonable price - £1250 fully inclusive (I work that out to be roughly £1050 ex-everything, if you want to compare and contrast with your local PC boxshifter). You can check out the press release for further details, or head on over to the RCI webpage.
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RCI Announce RISCBook |
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(15:04 9/12/2003)
Horse (16:26 9/12/2003)
mavhc (18:36 9/12/2003)
__davidb__ (19:50 9/12/2003)
monkeyson2 (21:27 9/12/2003)
Lee (21:52 11/12/2003)
AndyMc (19:29 15/12/2003)
rich (21:00 17/12/2003)
rich (12:33 12/1/2004)
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John Campbell Rees |
Message #92609, posted at 15:04, 9/12/2003 |
| Unregistered user
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The final nail in the coffin of the true ARM based RISC OS laptop. Why bother with a RISC OS only system when this machine is the best of both worlds. |
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Horse |
Message #92610, posted at 16:26, 9/12/2003, in reply to message #92609 |
| Unregistered user
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If I were RISC OS Ltd., I'd be working pretty hard on exposing those "power features" (DVD, card reader, anything you don't see that much of on actual ARM-based RISC OS machines) to the RISC OS "virtual machine". And it would be a smart thing to make it all run on Linux instead. Then, you'd have a fairly potent "virtual platform" which people might be slightly more encouraged to develop for. |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #92611, posted by mavhc at 18:36, 9/12/2003, in reply to message #92610 |
Member
Posts: 660
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Because it's not the best of both worlds, in the one place a low powered cpu would be useful we haven't got one. |
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__davidb__ |
Message #92612, posted at 19:50, 9/12/2003, in reply to message #92611 |
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Aiming for a Linux release might also provide a stable base for long term development. Still, I'm sure that VirtualAcorn will continue on Windows as long as there's a development path. Aside: Apart from the printing system, Virtual Acorn isn't mentioned anywhere in the press release linked to from the article above. Usually, a load of people begin to speculate wildly about the contents of these announcements, but maybe they're now too jaded to bother. |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #92613, posted by monkeyson2 at 21:27, 9/12/2003, in reply to message #92612 |
 Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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"Oh. Another Windows laptop. How nice." That, I'm afraid, was my reaction. There's none of the scrummy loveliness about PC hardware that there is with the Iyonix, the Omega, or the Risc PC. They're just, well... PCs. You see them everywhere, and despite all being different, they're all the same. Running a RISC OS emulator just doesn't have the Acorn magic. |
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Lee |
Message #92614, posted at 21:52, 11/12/2003, in reply to message #92613 |
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Here Here monkeyson2 |
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AndyMc |
Message #92615, posted at 19:29, 15/12/2003, in reply to message #92614 |
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Does anyone recognise this notebook? It looks rather interesting but I'd like a closer view. A bigger image (or link to one) would have been nice. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #92616, posted by rich at 21:00, 17/12/2003, in reply to message #92615 |
 Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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I did tour the PC manufacturers trying to identify the image above, but couldn't find it anywhere. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #92617, posted by rich at 12:33, 12/1/2004, in reply to message #92616 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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The Benq Joybook 5000 which has recently appeared on eBuyer looks very familiar... |
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The Icon Bar: News and features: RCI Announce RISCBook |
