Final Dice Roll
for Risc PC

 
Always expect the unexpected
 

This issue of RISCOScode was produced on a fifteen year old Risc PC fitted with the new Vpod graphics card from Stuart Tyrell Developments. It's extrodinary; new hardware for such a very old machine. It almost validates Acorn's silliness in producing computers that lasted for more than three years in the first place.
 
The Vpod removes limitations of the Risc PC's video capabilities. The 1280 by 1024 monitor in the RISCOScode office is running in 16 million colour mode under Vpod. Unaided, 256 colours is the best on offer, and only then with the 2MB VRAM upgrade installed. With Vpod, filer windows move smoothly. Viewing photographs no longer requires a move to a lower resolution to get more colours. All integral RISC OS software such as Draw and Paint operates as it should. In particular, Paint's screen snapshot function works. ArtWorks' graduated transparent colour fills are stunning.
 

Martin Wurthner (left) is shown his ArtWorks software running on a Risc PC fitted with the new Vpod graphics card. Matt Edgar (right) is the Vpod project manager and brains behind the team at Stuart Tyrell Developments that brought the graphics card to market.
 

 
"The Risc  PC with Vpod has surely become the well worn actress of the computing world; she can't quite compete with the young blood, but there's a style and beauty still there. Once more around the dance floor, my dear ?"
 
Stuart Tyrell Developments manufacture the only available modern RISC OS computer, the A9. The Vpod is an offshoot from ongoing product development. When the A9 was released in May 2006 there was much interest in "Project Simon". This was rumoured to be hardware device that doubled the operating speed of the released version of the A9. If true, this Viagra-A9 is the fastest native hardware RISC OS machine built to date. However, time passed. The mysterious "Project Simon" upgrade didn't appear.
 
It transpires that Simon was a code-word based upon letters taken from the words Silicon and Motion. Simon was a Silicon Motion graphics chip. The Vpod contains a Silicon Motion graphics chip. It's "Project Simon", but on a Risc PC. It's evidence that performance enhancing hardware for the A9 (or, perhaps, its successor) is still being worked on. It lends credibility to the rumous about the Viagra-A9. Lovely as it is to have a major upgrade for the Risc PC, the Vpod does not make sense in isolation. It tantilisingly suggests that Stuart Tyrell's boys are focused on something of greater importance.

*INFO Vpod

 
The Vpod is tied into version 6 (also known as 5i2) of the RISC OS operating system and it cannot be used with previous versions.
 
Vpod costs £149 from STD.
RISC OS 6 is £49, with an option to move onto the 'Select Annual Subscription Scheme' after three months for a further £50. Contact RISCOS Ltd.