ARMX6 roundup - OS update 6, HDMI audio, video improvements, legacy VGA support and show offers

In the run up to the SW show, I thought I should do a round-up posting of some of our ARMX6 news for those who
don’t read comp.sys.acorn.announce.

OS Update 6
===

First off, we have new OS Update 6 which is now shipping on all new machines and available to download for free
for existing customers on the owners’ download site.

The headline feature is support for high quality digital audio via HDMI. For the first time on RISC OS, users
can switch between traditional analogue audio, and HDMI digital audio “on the fly” as needed.

This is a major step forward for RISC OS, because it has necessitated giving RISC OS an understanding of multiple
audio devices, to allow all system sound to be routed through the chosen device (HDMI or analogue).

HDMI audio
==

Why is HDMI audio so exciting? Most modern AV/hifi equipment is HDMI equipped, and being able to feed ARMX6 into
such devices allows for lossless transmission of audio for the best quality playback.

It is also possible to connect in devices such as “Soundbars” via HDMI to give a massive improvement in sound quality
compared to normal TV/monitor speaker setups. Of course, you can also use HDMI to many existing monitors or TVs,
often yielding clearer/better sound, although this will depend on the device.

To quote one customer “the sound is the best I’ve heard from a computer” which explains why we’re so thrilled about it :)

Improved video and EDID
=======

In order to achieve this, a number of other improvements were needed to RISC OS. HDMI audio comes hand-in-hand
with automatic monitor capability detection – after all, you need to be able to find out what audio formats
the device supports. This has meant a revamp of EDID (monitor auto detection capability) in this new ROM,
which will naturally benefit RISC OS as a whole.

Along the way, we’ve further improved ARMX6’s already impressive video capabilities with tighter/more accurate timings
and better interpretation of the EDID extended info. This has allowed compatibility with a number of more exotic
(beyond-HD) displays which were previously troublesome.

The net result is even more impressive that we’ve achieved on modern Windows graphics cards. For example,
the 3440×1440 display we showed at the London exhibition can be connected to an ARMX6 and work perfectly with
just two clicks. Getting it to work properly on a modern Windows GPU via HDMI involved me having to create
custom timings, being dropped to 16bit colour or low resolutions (took about 30 mins of fiddling).
It was quite an eye-openning experience!

Legacy VGA
==

The combination of these improvements has also led to an additional option for graphics connectivity – legacy VGA.
This has always proven difficult for modern digital-only ARM machines, but the new HDMI video+audio work has
facilitated a suitable VGA-out option. We’ve been able to drive older VGA-only projectors and monitors this way.

As usual, big thanks to all those involved in development and testing.

Show offers
===

At the show we’ll have ARMX6 machines for sale, of course with most permutations of SSD size, case and backup.
In addition, we’ll have the VGA option and soundbars mentioned above.

All ARMX6s bought/collected at the show will have a free 64Gb storage upgrade, allowing for easy backup/restore.
This is in additional to the normal SSD storage and OS ROM/recovery-system supplied in an ARMX6. The idea is to
provide users with extra storage for backing up personal data and other important bits and pieces.

All ARMX6s bought/collected at the show will have a free 64Gb storage upgrade, allowing for easy backup/restore.

64 gigabits isn’t much, unless gigabytes was intended, hmm

64 gigabits isn’t much,

It’s four times what I have in my Pi at the moment… ;-)

and OS ROM/recovery-system supplied in an ARMX6.

This intrigues me. As a developer, there is always the risk of a borked ROM build, which would “brick” my Pi. I use brick in quotes because it is dead easy to fix, with an alternative SD card or a PC to tweak the files and thus roll back to a previous ROM build; but if there was some sort of in-situ mechanism to do roll back to a previous ROM, that could be an interesting idea.

Mike – ach, you got me! Scuppered! I guess I’ll have to just offer a free 64GB (gigabytes) of storage instead as penance :)

(Note: It was always 64 gigabytes of storage offered, Mike just caught my typo)