Ever since Jeffrey Lee began work on porting RISC OS to developer boards such as the BeagleBoard and IGEPv2 there's been interest in putting a case around them to make them into proper computers. Both ports are still firmly in progress, so a finished-off A9-style computer isn't likely to appear for some time. That hasn't stopped some hobbyists having a go at making their own. This one looks particularly impressive:
 

 
There are more pics and description here on the ROOL forums. The nutBOX comes hot on the heels of Dave Thomas's lego housing for his IGEPv2 here, first reported on riscos.info.
 
There's still some way to go before the RISC OS OMAP port is stable enough to drive a general purpose computer suitable for everyday use, but in the meantime, plenty of people are having fun with what already exists...
 

RISC OS Open have announced that Castle have given the official seal of approval to RISC OS 5.16, the new version of the shared-source OS. The most prominent feature in this new version is a fix for the much-discussed year 2012 bug, where IYONIX computers would mistakenly read their real-time clock on startup if it's an odd-numbered decade.
 
The new IYONIX pc ROM can be downloaded free of charge from the ROOL site, in either flash programmer or softload form. ROOL advise that the ROM image is believed to work in softload form on all IYONIX versions of RISC OS from 5.10 or later. In flash programmer form, it should work from version 5.07 or later.
 
To avoid any unforseen compatibility issues with third-party software, it's advised to at try out the softload at least once before running the flash programmer tool. Just remember that the using the softload won't fix the year 2012 bug (and can even result in a jump to 2110) - the only way to fix the year 2012 bug is to use the flash programmer.
 
Update: ROOL have now added to the release announcement a human-readable list of the changes that have been made since the last official release (5.14).
 
Links

• ROOL announcement
• Download page, containing both the softload and the flash programmer

 

After hearing the news that videos from the recent RISC OS London Show are now available online, I decided to take a look at what RISCOS Ltd had to say in their presentation. The results I found to be quite shocking...
 
Disclaimer: Although I've obviously been doing a lot of work for RISC OS Open recently, I am not a member of ROOL, nor am I speaking on behalf of ROOL (or The Icon Bar). The opinions expressed below are mine and mine alone, and any likeness or resemblence to any other person's opinions is entirely coincidental.
 
 

The ROOL team recently announced that they're no longer registered for VAT, which means the Norcroft C compiler and associated tools are a bit cheaper at GBP50 (plus P&P). ROOL took over the distribution of the suite from Castle last year, who took them over in turn from Acorn.
 
The Norcroft compiler has long been the default option for C programmers on RISC OS. It's only relatively recently that the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) has provided a genuine alternative. The latter has many advantages, including development drawn from a wider pool of developers and the ability to compile RISC OS programs on fast PC-based hardware. However, at the time of writing, the RISC OS sources are only compilable using Norcroft. It's possible this may change in the future, but for the time being, if you fancy getting involved in the porting efforts, obtaining a copy of the necessary tools just got a bit easier.
 
The ROOL announcement is here. The announcement was publicised on RISC OS Info a couple of days ago.
 

As you may or may not already know, over the past few weeks I've been working on improving the performance of RISC OS 5's USB mass storage drivers. Although RISC OS Open have yet to make an official announcement about the availability of the drivers, they are in fact available for download now from the ROOL website.
 
Read on for some brief benchmarks, and instructions on how to install the drivers on your Iyonix.
 
 

For several years now, the need to get RISC OS running on faster hardware has been pressing. It may not be the platform's worst headache (lack of developers is surely the biggest problem), but the Iyonix and A9 hardware are now well past their prime. Even on release they weren't blisteringly quick, and cheap PCs have now left them far, far behind. Things that are taken for granted on a Windows or Mac OS machine, such as watching video, are simply impossible on current generation RISC OS hardware.
 
 

As most of you probably know by now, a few months ago I started work on porting RISC OS Open's RISC OS kernel to TI's OMAP3 platform - a group of SoC's (Systems on a Chip) which use ARM Cortex-A8 cores. To date, OMAP3 SoC's have been confirmed as being used in various products, including the Pandora handheld gaming console, the Touch Book convertible netbook/tablet, and the BeagleBoard development board. For years RISC OS users have been asking for a new portable RISC OS machine, and soon they may find that they have several available.
 
 

The 2009 Wakefield Show takes place today.

• Stuart Tyrrell Developments' have unveiled their VPod graphics accelerator. For £149, the podule card for the Risc PC range of computers features hardware acceleration and high resolutions such as 1680x1050 in 16 million colours.
• NetSurf 2.0 has been released and is available for download on the NetSurf website.
• RISC OS Open has been demonstrated running on a A7000 computer.

Link: Wakefield Show news (via Twitter)