Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Computer hardware Computer software |
Founded | 4 June 1993 Colchester, England |
Founder | John Ballance Jack Lillingston Peter Wild |
Defunct | 2018 |
Successor | RISC OS Developments Ltd |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Jack Lillingston, Managing Director Peter Wild, Operations Director John Ballance, Technology Director |
Products | Iyonix PC RISC OS RISC PC |
Divisions | Tematic |
Website | Castle-Technology.co.uk |
Castle Technology Limited, named after Framlingham Castle, [1] was a British computer company based in Cambridge, England. [2] It began as a producer of ARM computers and manufactured the Acorn-branded range of desktop computers that run RISC OS. [3]
Following the break-up of Acorn in 1998, Castle Technology bought the rights to continue production of the RISC PC and A7000+ computers under the Acorn brand. [4] Castle Technology later released the Iyonix PC in November 2002, [5] the first desktop computer to use the Intel XScale microarchitecture and then bought the rights to the RISC OS Technology from Pace in July 2003. [6]
After Acorn withdrew from the desktop computer industry in 1998, Castle Technology acquired the rights to produce the A7000, A7000+ and RISC PC using the Acorn brand. [7]
In 2001, development started on the Iyonix PC (codenamed Tungsten) as a set-top unit (STU) in secret by engineers at Pace's Shipley campus along with a 32-bit version of RISC OS 4 (known as RISC OS 5). When management discovered the project the campus was closed. [8]
Castle Technology acquired the proposed designs and the original engineers from Pace to further develop the Tungsten into a desktop computer. Robert Sprowson, the original hardware designer, declined to join Castle Technology and so Peter Wild was recruited. [8] The Iyonix PC was released six months later. Although it was well received, it was not designed for long-term production and therefore used some components that were near obsolete when it was released. [8]
A problem for the Iyonix PC was that it used leaded components which were outlawed with the adoption of Directive 2002–95/EC in February 2003 by the European Union. However, by this time Castle Technology was financially troubled and could not afford to re-engineer the Iyonix PC without the leaded components. [8] The remaining Iyonix stock were passed to Iyonix Limited which stopped distribution on 30 September 2008. [9]
In 2004, Castle Technology acquired Tematic to further development of RISC OS in embedded systems. [10] In December 2005, Castle Technology moved its main office to the former premises of its software development division, [2] following the migration of Tematic to a neighbouring premises in Signet Court, Cambridge. [11]
In 2018 RISC OS Developments acquired Castle Technology Ltd including the Intellectual Property. [12]
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK, including the Acorn Electron and the Acorn Archimedes. Acorn's BBC Micro computer dominated the UK educational computer market during the 1980s.
The Risc PC is Acorn Computers's RISC OS/Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched on 15 April 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. The Acorn PC card and software allows PC compatible software to be run.
Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems are based on Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and the proprietary operating systems Arthur and RISC OS. The first models were introduced in 1987, and systems in the Archimedes family were sold until the mid-1990s.
RISC OS is a computer operating system originally designed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England. First released in 1987, it was designed to run on the ARM chipset, which Acorn had designed concurrently for use in its new line of Archimedes personal computers. RISC OS takes its name from the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture it supports.
The Iyonix PC was an Acorn-clone personal computer sold by Castle Technology and Iyonix Ltd between 2002 and 2008. According to news site Slashdot, it was the first personal computer to use Intel's XScale processor. It ran RISC OS 5.
Xara is an international software company founded in 1981, with an HQ in Berlin and development office in Hemel Hempstead, UK. It has developed software for a variety of computer platforms, in chronological order: the Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z88, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and more recently web browser-based services.
The A9home was a niche small-form-factor desktop computer running RISC OS Adjust32. It was officially unveiled at the 2005 Wakefield Show, and is the second commercial ARM-based RISC OS computer to run a 32-bit version of RISC OS. When the Iyonix PC was withdrawn from sale, the A9home remained the only hardware to be manufactured specifically for the RISC OS marketplace.
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RISC OS Open Ltd. is a limited company engaged in computer software and IT consulting. It is managing the process of publishing the source code to RISC OS. Company founders include staff who formerly worked for Pace, the company which acquired RISC OS after Acorn's demise.
RISCOS Ltd. was a limited company engaged in computer software and IT consulting. It licensed the rights to continue the development of RISC OS 4 and to distribute it for desktop machines from Element 14 and subsequently Pace Micro Technology. Company founders include developers who formerly worked within Acorn's dealership network. It was established as a nonprofit company. On or before 4 March 2013 3QD Developments acquired RISCOS Ltd's flavour of RISC OS. RISCOS Ltd was dissolved on 14 May 2013.
NCOS is the graphical user interface-based operating system developed for use in Oracle Corporation's Network Computers, which are discontinued. It was adapted by Acorn Computers from its own RISC OS, which was originally developed for their range of Archimedes desktop computers. It shares with RISC OS the same 4 MB ROM size and suitability for use with TV displays.
Acorn C/C++ is a set of C/C++ programming tools for use under the RISC OS operating system. The tools use the Norcroft compiler suite and were authored by Codemist and Acorn Computers. The tools provide some facilities offered by a fully integrated development environment.
RISC OS, the computer operating system developed by Acorn Computers for their ARM-based Acorn Archimedes range, was originally released in 1987 as Arthur 0.20, and soon followed by Arthur 0.30, and Arthur 1.20. The next version, Arthur 2, became RISC OS 2 and was completed and made available in April 1989. RISC OS 3 was released with the very earliest version of the A5000 in 1991 and contained a series of new features. By 1996 RISC OS had been shipped on over 500,000 systems.
The MicroDigital Omega was a home computer developed and sold in the early 2000s by MicroDigital. It runs the RISC OS operating system.
VirtualAcorn is the brand name of several commercial emulators of Acorn Computers computer hardware platforms.
In computing, Aemulor is an emulator of the earlier 26-bit addressing-mode ARM microprocessors. It runs on ARM processors under 32-bit addressing-mode versions of RISC OS. It was written by Adrian Lees and released in 2003. An enhanced version is available under the name Aemulor Pro.
Impression is a desktop publishing application for RISC OS systems. It was developed by Computer Concepts and initially made available in pre-release form during 1989, having been demonstrated in February 1989 at the Which? Computer Show and subsequently announced as being available from June 1989. The "completed" version was eventually delivered on 18th January 1990.
Oregano is a commercial web browser for RISC OS computers. Oregano is a derivative of a browser developed by Oregan Networks Ltd under the name Oregan Media Browser for consumer electronics devices, games consoles and IP Set Top Boxes.
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