Castle Iyonix

Introduction

The Iyonix was the first 32-bit RISC OS computer, it comes with RISC OS 5 in Flash ROM so that it can be easily updated by upgrades distributed over the internet. The main features are:

600 MHz Intel XScale 80321 CPU
128MB 200MHz DDR RAM, upgradable to maximum 1 GB
2 x UDMA IDE expansion sockets each supporting 2 drives
NVidia GeForce 2 MX PCI graphics card
High screen resolutions of 16 million colours at up to 2048 x1536 pixels
CD-ROM (CDRW optional)
3½" floppy disc
4 x USB 1.1 ports (now upgraded to USB 2.0 with RISC OS 5.12 and above)
2 x 64-bit & 2 x 32-bit PCI expansion slots
2 32-bit podule slots (needs backplane)
10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet networking
2 x serial ports
mic in, audio in and headphone socket

Castle made a podule backplane for the Iyonix to allow produles from RISC OS computers to be used with the Iyonix.

Manuals and documents

None.

Iyonix

I bought my Iyonix in January 2003 and have been using it as my main computer ever since.

Here are some pictures:

Iyonix running RISC OS 5

Iyonix desktop running RISC OS 5.13

The main application running is WebWonder which I use to create Chris's Acorns. Also on the icon bar is Netsurf, used to check pages and FTPc used to upload the pages to the web server. On the left of the Icon bar the stacked disc icon is Access which I use to share public directories with my RiscPC and other Acorn computers. The Net icon is for Omniclient which I no longer use, but gives access to shared directories on my Windows 2003 server. To its right is the Sunfish icon which I now use for NFS access to the Windows 2003 shared directories. The last icon is for Aemulor.

Iyonix (front)

Iyonix (front)

At the top is the CDRW dirve with floppy disc drive below. To its right is the On switch. Below, on the left, is the Reset switch next to the power and HD activity LEDs and 2 x USB ports. At the bottom is the air inlet and the speaker is inside the case.

Iyonix back

Iyonix (back)

The power supply is at the top with fan and on/off switch. Below the fan are the 2 Podule Bus openings (I don't have a backplane fitted, so no podules). Next to them are the 2 x serial ports, the network port and the audio sockets. At the bottom are the 4 PCI slots, one has the 2 x USB ports the other is the GeForce 2 MX video card.

Iyonix open

Iyonix with the cover removed

The cabling for the power and IDE ribbon cables is a bit messy and hides much of the motherboard.

Iyonix motherboard

Iyonix motherboard

On the top left side are the I/O ports. The large unmarked square chip is the Intel XScale 80321 CPU. The 512MB RAM SIMM is on the right side part hidden by the disc drives. The brown connector is for the 2 slot podule backplane (not fitted). To is right are the 2x IDE connectors and the floppy disc connector below them. On the left are the white PCI slots, The graphics card is in the bottom and the USB is in the top 64-bit slot. The UDMA card is in the back of the USB card slot.

Here is a HiRes picture of the Castle Iyonix motherboard .

Specification:

Serial No.	IYO1100939
Unique Identity	00009950013A8
Motherboard	Castle 8067660000001 Rev0.29
Motherboard Serial No.	CTL2000-016.13.A8
CPU	Intel IOP80321
CPU Clock	600MHz
Memory	512MB PC2100
Video Controller	nVidia GeForce MX400
Floppy Disc	Sony MPF920-E
Disc Controller	on-board IDE
Hard Disc	2 x Maxstor Diamond Plus 9 80GB
CDRW	Sony CRX210E1
Network card	on-board
Network driver	EtherK
OS	RISC OS 5.13 (23-Feb-2007)
SICK v1.22 Dhrystones/sec kWhetstones/sec	note 1
ARMSi v3.31H MIPS	note 1

Notes

1. Neither SICK v1.22 nor ARMSi will run on the Iyonix