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Omega irritation |
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(13:58 15/6/2002)
The Doctor (00:48 26/12/2000)
Enigma298 (22:01 26/12/2000)
arenaman (03:41 27/12/2000)
ams (16:47 27/12/2000)
arenaman (23:55 27/12/2000)
[mentat] (13:58 15/6/2002)
RevinKevin (13:58 15/6/2002)
guy (16:13 3/1/2001)
arenaman (19:27 7/1/2001)
jess (22:16 7/1/2001)
Enigma298 (13:58 15/6/2002)
jess (23:29 7/1/2001)
Enigma298 (13:58 15/6/2002)
guy (10:21 9/1/2001)
jess (13:19 9/1/2001)
RevinKevin (21:18 9/1/2001)
guy (09:47 10/1/2001)
jess (12:20 10/1/2001)
arenaman (13:58 15/6/2002)
Enigma298 (13:58 15/6/2002)
jess (10:50 12/1/2001)
arenaman (12:32 12/1/2001)
ams (21:00 13/1/2001)
monkeyson (14:27 29/1/2001)
guy (13:58 15/6/2002)
law (13:58 15/6/2002)
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The Doctor |
Message #2009, posted at 00:48, 26/12/2000, in reply to message #2008 |
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I generally feel the same way.
I own a RPC SA268 and am also waiting for the Omega.
I won't even consider a Kinetic as IMO it is too expensive for the small performance increase I would get and I also have a Blitz IdeA interface which wouldn't work so well in it.If my RPC wasn't a StrongArm, then perhaps it might have been worth while. On paper it would seem that the Omega will knock the pants off even the Kinetic in every respect, which makes it a worthwhile upgrade for me. I must admit, I've wondered why MicroDigital have done almost exactly what Acorn did all those years ago, announcing a new machine well before it's ready, knowing that people will hold off their purchases in anticipation of the new machine. However, I don't think the Omega will go quite the same way as Phoebe (lets face it, that would be a mammoth disaster!) and I still expect to see it early in the new year. I can only hope that MD really push this machine to the rest of the country by 'ADVERTISING' it, and not just aiming at existing RISC OS users like the other companies are. [Edited by MAD NURSE at 00:49, 26/12/2000] |
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Enigma298 |
Message #2010, posted at 22:01, 26/12/2000, in reply to message #2009 |
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I'd be surprised if they do a great deal of national advertising - I doubt that they have the budget for it. Or, sad to say, even the ability to advertise it effectively. Just look at what has happened so far with the Omega, and look at Microdigital's website for some idea of how good they are at advertising... I'd love to see it happen, I just don't think it will. |
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arenaman |
Message #2011, posted at 03:41, 27/12/2000, in reply to message #2010 |
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I'd be surprised if they do a great deal of national advertising - I doubt that they have the budget for it.
They probably don't at the moment, but then you probably would have been sure they wouldn't have the money to develop the Omega. Once they start shipping Omegas, they can then advertise nationally. Simple really.
Or, sad to say, even the ability to advertise it effectively. Just look at what has happened so far with the Omega, and look at Microdigital's website for some idea of how good they are at advertising...
Their Web site is enough to stop potential customers dead in their tracks and go running back to Castle or indeed Pee Cee land. However, Mr Atkins assures me they will be getting this sorted after the Omega has taken off. Their magazine ads are pretty good, though.
I'd love to see it happen, I just don't think it will.
He seems pretty damn determined to make a big impact with this and certainly not just in the existing RISC OS market. |
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ams |
Message #2012, posted at 16:47, 27/12/2000, in reply to message #2011 |
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I find the Omega web site frightening. Its layout could be better (the visitor count seems stuck for example). Anyway its not the way to sell a system. More importantly there has been little (if any) feedback on the status of Omega, no one outside MD (to my knowledge) has seen one running. I have a strong suspicion that Omega is still some ways off. I like many have been holding off purchasing a machine until the status of Omega was clarified (I in the back of my mind consoled myself with the option that if Imago appeared first I'd opt for that). Clearly for me (as I use an A-3010 -DON'T LAUGH PLEASE !!) I really want (need) to upgrade and if worst comes to worst I may wind up getting an RPC (not Kinetic) with the knowledge I can slot in an Imago board later when it arrives. I suspect if Omega does not show REAL signs of life soon others may take that very same path also.
[Edited by ams at 16:49, 27/12/2000]
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arenaman |
Message #2013, posted at 23:55, 27/12/2000, in reply to message #2012 |
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I am have a new RiscPC 233T which will either receive a new Castle motherboard or an Imago, at some point in the future. You can use your podules and PC Card in the Imago, anyway. |
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guy |
Message #2016, posted at 16:13, 3/1/2001, in reply to message #2015 |
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I'm waiting for an Omega, too.
I actually want to dual-boot RiscOS and Linux.
Not wanting to pioneer the Linux installation, I am restricted to Aleph One's offerings - at the moment it's anything as long as it's a Risc PC. Which, in truth, I would probably have bought if it wasn't for Omega and the fact that MD say it is designed "with Linux in mind".
I've seen some coverage of it in a national PC mag, mainly for being Intel X-Scale ready.
Hope neither MD nor Aleph lets me down. At least Aleph answer ny emails. |
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arenaman |
Message #2017, posted at 19:27, 7/1/2001, in reply to message #2016 |
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Why not buy a Kinetic RiscPC and wait for Imago or new Castle developments. Surely Kinetic with a ViewFinder will serve your needs for a good while? Linux works on this setup already so no waiting. |
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jess |
Message #2018, posted at 22:16, 7/1/2001, in reply to message #2017 |
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For anyone with less than an A5000, it's possibly worth looking for a second hand A7000 and upgradin it as a stopgap
until the new machines appear.
With RISCOS 4, some extra RAM, maybe a newer HD or CD, you'd get quite a viable system that could be relegated to a
spare (or lent to a friend) when the new machines arrive. |
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jess |
Message #2020, posted at 23:29, 7/1/2001, in reply to message #2019 |
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A friend got an A7K from AJS for about £100, far better than an A3020.
Graphics: only 16 col at 1024x768. He didn't think there was much perfonce difference from an A5k.
Does take RO4, more RAM, big HD of course. |
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guy |
Message #2023, posted at 10:21, 9/1/2001, in reply to message #2021 |
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It's a shame there's nothing in between an A7000+ and a RiscPC (4-5 fold speed difference between the two). I assumed the Microdigital 7500FE machine (Medi/Mico?) filled the gap. Am I wrong? |
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jess |
Message #2024, posted at 13:19, 9/1/2001, in reply to message #2023 |
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Mico is not much different in speed to the fastest A7000+. It has a much faster filing system though, and far more potential for expansion. |
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RevinKevin |
Message #2025, posted at 21:18, 9/1/2001, in reply to message #2024 |
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Mico is not much different in speed to the fastest A7000+. It has a much faster filing system though, and far more potential for expansion. But can it be upgraded to Omega specs? Also they do a graphics card. |
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guy |
Message #2026, posted at 09:47, 10/1/2001, in reply to message #2025 |
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Mico is not much different in speed to the fastest A7000+. It has a much faster filing system though, and far more potential for expansion. But can it be upgraded to Omega specs? Also they do a graphics card.
Doubt it. You'd need a new motherboard for starters, and we don't know about mechanical compatibility yet. |
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jess |
Message #2027, posted at 12:20, 10/1/2001, in reply to message #2026 |
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But can it be upgraded to Omega specs?
Also they do a graphics card. Adding graphics card to an existing mico would be sensible, but buying one with it, too close to cost of Omega. Mico is an ATX design, could almost certainly be upgraded to Omega (as could most clone PCs), but it wouldn't be cost effective, unless a special deal were offered. All that would be re-used would be case and drives (~ £150 worth). (newish PC would possibly be a better candidate for upgrade, could use RAM too and OS license and leftovers could be sold on) |
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jess |
Message #2031, posted at 10:50, 12/1/2001, in reply to message #2029 |
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I think the omega will have a different market: people who haven't already got a Risc PC. I'm certain the Omega will significantly out perform the Risc PC, but probably not by enough margin for most Risc PC owners to change. (Kinetic owners anyway) |
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arenaman |
Message #2032, posted at 12:32, 12/1/2001, in reply to message #2031 |
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Indeed. Kinetic is incredible. As regards graphics, if only a module was written or RISC OS slightly altered so that main memory could act as screen memory (the reverse of screen memory acting as normal memory) it would avoid the problems with ViewFinder and bring the grpahics up to do the Kinetic some justice! Is it a technical limitation that is stopping say an 8meg VRAM module being produced for the RiscPC? |
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ams |
Message #2033, posted at 21:00, 13/1/2001, in reply to message #2032 |
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Michael Stubbs wrote that:Indeed. Kinetic is incredible. As regards graphics, if only a module was written or RISC OS slightly altered so that main memory could act as screen memory (the reverse of screen memory acting as normal memory) it would avoid the problems with ViewFinder and bring the grpahics up to do the Kinetic some justice! The real problem is the video is obtained from the motherboard not the kinetic. Simply writing a RISC OS module will not solve the problem. The connection between the RPC mainboard and the Kinetic is (probably) limited to something like 16MHz and 32 bits (a bandwidth of 61MBytes/sec) to transfer a 2MByte bufferful to the VIDC would take 2/61 or (about) 1/30th of a second (a bit slow really). Is it a technical limitation that is stopping say an 8meg VRAM module being produced for the RiscPC? Yes, but it depends on if Acorn designed a limit in. If the address bus is only 21 bits wide to the VRAM your limit is 2MBytes and that's that (I don't have access to the RPC technical specs so it may well allow more than 2MB, but again it depends on the number of address lines fed to the VRAM). A second limitation is that the VIDC has a bandwidth limit that means a single screen buffer of 8MBytes would probably refresh too slowly (whereas 2MBytes is manageable). What's needed is a full revamp of the display hardware and that is most likely to occur with the Millipede Imago (I've seen a better than 1 megapixel sprite at 24 bit colour moved FULL SCREEN in real time on the prototype board and it is VERY IMPRESSIVE !). That was done with no video graphics acceleration and just using a bog standard SA-110 at 233MHz. Its the speed of the memory system (over 1.6GBytes/sec) that allows this. The MD Omega will also allow it to display at high frame rates and high resolution (its bandwidth is lower than Imago at just over 1GByte/sec). Viewfinder as a solution only really works for bit-blit operations for RPC mediated screen updates it suffers (due to no fault of its own) because it operates over the slow Podule bus (something even VIDC doesn't do). Anything involving the ARM updating the VF Memory is going to get hit badly by that bus bandwidth limitation. |
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monkeyson |
Message #2034, posted at 14:27, 29/1/2001, in reply to message #2033 |
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If you look in this month's AU, in the Liquid Silicon advert, there's an Omega 10BaseT card, and an Omega SCSI 2 card listed, both 60-70UKP... Something must be happening... |
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law |
Message #2022, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2021 |
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I believe you can't use the podule slot on the A7000(+) if you have a CDROM drive fitted though! There might be an extension which lets you do it, but I'm distressed about that, as it means I can't fit a network card 
That's not actually correct. The A7K, A7K+, & the RiscPC all have a (the same) dedicated network slot/connector, It takes an EtherLan 60x (I-cubed now DesignIT) or equivalent, so you can have your cake & eat it  |
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Enigma298 |
Message #2021, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2020 |
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My A7K+ runs at about double the speed of my 25MHz ARM3 A5000, but I can imagine that there's not a great deal of difference between a 33MHz A5000 and a standard A7000, but you do get the upgraded graphics capabilities (equivalent to a RiscPC with 1MB VRAM). I believe you can't use the podule slot on the A7000(+) if you have a CDROM drive fitted though! There might be an extension which lets you do it, but I'm distressed about that, as it means I can't fit a network card I did like the 2GB hard disc that they fitted with the A7000 though RO4 is a bonus as well. It's a shame there's nothing in between an A7000+ and a RiscPC (4-5 fold speed difference between the two). |
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arenaman |
Message #2028, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2027 |
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I have just bought a Kinetic - to put it simply, I find it hard to see what advantages an Omega will hold over it except for graphics ability (but what about ViewFinder?) and faster disc access (which will only be apparent when throwing around really big files). This baby really flies The difference is very apparent even from 233T and RISC OS 4! Stop worrying about filling in between now and the fabled new machines and get a Kinetic  |
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Enigma298 |
Message #2029, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2028 |
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Well, the promised USB and PCI might be useful as well, as well as the xScale readiness Although to be perfectly honest, for most of the things that I want to do, I'd rather spend the 5 hundred odd quid to get a ViewFinder and a Kinetic upgrade on upgrading my PeeCee - I can't afford to do both unfortunately. |
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guy |
Message #2030, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2029 |
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Why not upgrade your Kinetic to dual-boot Linux? At least you'd get automatic package upgrades, massive amounts of stuff in the pipeline, and a half-decent web browser  You could even use ROX so the desktop feels like home. I'm persuaded to wait mainly by the better expandability without an expensive extra slice, and by the USB/PCI and 32-bit "readiness". |
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Enigma298 |
Message #2019, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2018 |
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There's the CJE programmer's initiative as well of course (if you're a programmer!) - buy one of their machines and stick a second hand StrongARM upgrade into it and while it won't be state of the art, it won't be too far off, and you'll end up spending about as much as you would for a second hand A7000 or A7000+. AJS Computers do second hand machines at good prices (http://www.ajscomputers.co.uk), although I'm not quite sure about how good an A7000 is (I got an A7000+ from them though, and I like it ) |
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RevinKevin |
Message #2015, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2010 |
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I'd be surprised if they do a great deal of national advertising - I doubt that they have the budget for it.Or, sad to say, even the ability to advertise it effectively. Just look at what has happened so far with the Omega, and look at Microdigital's website for some idea of how good they are at advertising... I'd love to see it happen, I just don't think it will. Yes but they have stated that they have a European distributor in Holland  SO things must be going somewhere with it? |
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I don't have tourettes you're just a cun |
Message #2014, posted by [mentat] at 13:58, 15/6/2002, in reply to message #2012 |
![[mentat]](/images/smileys/mentat.gif) Fear is the mind-killer
Posts: 6266
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Clearly for me (as I use an A-3010 -DON'T LAUGH PLEASE !!)... Hey maaan, the A3010 is cool. Those green F-keys rule dude! I have an RPC and scooped up a 2nd hand A3010 as well |
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Enigma298 |
Message #2008, posted at 13:58, 15/6/2002 |
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I'm annoyed....being the proud owner of an Acorn (not Castle) A7000+ and an A5000 (and a few PeeCees, but we won't talk about those...), I want to buy a more up to date RISCOS box, but I don't want to fork out a grand or more for a RiscPC if the Omega is going to turn up soon and knock the pants off anything currently on the market. I wonder how many other people have held back purchases while they wait for the Omega to turn up ? With nothing to confirm that the machine even exists (I've seen and heard no statements from anyone who has seen the beast running), I'm not convinced about it. It promises a lot, but how much of it is actually believable ? Who is doing the work on RISCOS to make it utilise all of the features, such as USB etc that have been promised ? And if no one is buying new machines because they're waiting for the Omega, this can't be a good thing can it ? |
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