{"id":1598,"date":"2024-08-01T20:32:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T20:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2025-12-23T09:28:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:28:57","slug":"castle-computers-iyonix-panther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintage.bohemiancave.org.uk\/index.php\/castle-computers-iyonix-panther\/","title":{"rendered":"Castle Technology Iyonix Panther"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Castle Technology began as a producer of ARM computers, manufacturing Acorn’s RISC OS computers for them. Around 1999, when Acorn unfortunately came to an end and was broken up, Castle bought the rights to continue production of the RISC PC and A7000+ computers under the Acorn brand. In November 2002 they developed and released their own RISC OS machine, the Iyonix pc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

There were a few versions of the Iyonix pc produced, the motherboard of each being identical between them. As well as the ‘classic’ mini-tower, there were the desktop X100 series, X300 series towers, ARIA Cube (X400 series), the full height tower Panther (the model I have) and the Panther TC. The wayback machine<\/a> has a copy of their website with machine details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The processor is a 600MHz Intel XScale 80321 ARM – the first desktop machine to use an XScale processor. Unlike earlier RISC OS machines (the Risc PC and the Archimedes), the Iyonix motherboard was ATX compatible, in shape, size and mounting holes, as well as its power connector. The three available cases were all ATX form factor as well as the power supply. Rumour has it that the power supply needed to be better that that specified by the ATX standards. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The standard case featured slots on the back for PCI and Risc PC style podules. However, the Panther case does not have the cutouts for podules. The motherboard has a podule backplane socket, so a riser is all you need to electrically connect Risc PC podules. Software shouldn’t be a problem either. The Panther case also has room for podules too (if you cut some holes in the back – which I don’t want to do).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are two default PCI cards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n