MicroDigital
[After Acorn ] [Companies ]
Introduction
In 1996 Dave Atkins and FocusIT decided to build their own computers and set up MicroDigital to produce their own RISC OS designs. The target market was home and home education users. MicroDigital's first product was the Medi, then Mico, then the Alpha Notebook and finally the much more ambitious Omega. Unfortunately MicroDigital ceased trading in 2005 with the Omega still not completed to its original specification although an unknown number had been shipped to customers.
Manuals and documents
Here is a MicroDigital Alpha Poster
Here is a MicroDigital Omega Poster
Computers:
Medi
The MicroDigital Medi, launched in August 1998, was a repackaged A7000+, with an Acorn A7000+ motherboard in a bright blue case. According to Risc User the specification was:
- Disc Drives: 80MB hard disc, floppy, 24xCD-R
- Screen: 15" Monitor 800x600x32K / 1024x768x256
- CPU/OS: 48MHz ARM7500FE, RISC OS 3.71
- Memory: 8MB EDO RAM expandable to 128MB
- Input: Keyboard, mouse, 8-bit sound sampler with mic
- Ports: Parallel, serial, monito, keyboard. mouse
- Sound 16-bit with ausio mixer, speaker, headphones
- Expansion: network slot, RAM, 2 x EASI podule slots
Unfortunately the Medi was launched as Acorn was dismembered and it is not clear to me how many were produced or if any were actually sold.
I do not have one. [Wanted]
Mico
The Mico was an ARM7500 based computer similar to the Acorn A7500+ and the RiscStation R7500.
Here are further details and some pictures of the Mico .
Alpha
The Alpha was a Windows notebook running the Virtual Acorn emulator and RISC OS 4.03. Its specification was:
- 2GHz Intel Celeron CPU
- 256MB SODIMM PC-2100 DDR RAM expandable to 1 GB
- 64MB Video Memory
- 13.3" TFT Display with maximum resolution 1024x768
- 15GB hard disc, 24xCD-ROM and 3.5" floppy disc drive
- interfaces included: parallel port , PS/2 connector, Video out, line out, microphone, 100MBit Ethernet RJ45, modem RJ11 and 2 x USB sockets
- Internal 56k modem
- Full duplex 16 bit sound with built in speakers.
- Windows XP Home and RISC OS 4 operating systems
Note: The specification was subject to regular upgades as PC technology changed, so it may not be 100% correct for a specific Alpha Notebook.
Omega
The Omega was intended to be a step beyond the Acorn RiscPC with a new architecture. According to Foundation RISC User the specification was:
- 306MHz StrongARM 110 Rev T CPU
- Optional Intel Xscale 80200 CPU at up to 1GHz
- 64MB PC133 SDRAM expandable to 1GB
- RISC OS 4.03 in 5MB Flash ROM + device driver modules
- Lightning+ video chip with 2D & 3D acceration, upto 1699 x 1200 in 24bit colour at 90MHz
- 16bit audio sound card supporting 16bit CD quality stereo digital sound system, SoundBaster and Soundblaster Pro compatible, serial MIDI input
- I/O ports include: Dual channel ATA100 Ulltra DMA EIDE interface each supporting 2 drives, dual USB 1.1 controllers each supporting 6 x USB ports, Parallel printer, keyboard, mouse, RS232 serial port, monitor output, Games/MIDI interface, Audio in & out, microphone jack and 3½" floppy disc.
- 32bit IDEFS supporting password protection, drive partitioning
- Minimum 40GB Hard disc and 52x speed CDROM or DVDROM or CD writer
- 1.6MB floppy drive
- 4 x 32 bit 33MHz PCI slots
- 56K modem
- 10/100 Mb Ethernet
- PS/2 102-key keyboard and 3-button mouse
- Standard tower, desktop or midi-tower case
- Optional SCSI 3 card
- Optional Floating point co-processor card
- PC card with upto 1GHz Pentium III
I am not sure how many of these features were actually implemented. But a small number (ca. 100?) were delivered to customers after much delay.
I have not got an Omega. [Wanted]