Advanced RISC Computing - Definition and Overview

Advanced RISC Computing is a specification promulgated by a defunct consortium of computer manufacturers (the Advanced Computing Environment project), setting forth a standard MIPS RISC-based computer hardware and firmware environment.

Although ACE went defunct, and although no computer was ever manufactured which fully complied with the ARC standard, nonetheless the ARC system still exerts a widespread legacy in that all Microsoft Windows NT-based operating systems (such as Windows XP) use ARC conventions for naming boot devices and other aspects of operating system design.

Further, SGI uses a modified version of the ARC firmware (which it calls ARCS) in its workstations. All SGI computers which run IRIX 6.1 or later (such as the Indy, Octane, etc.) boot from an ARCS console (which uses the same drive naming conventions as Windows, accordingly).

In addition, a majority of the RISC-based computers from the early and mid-1990s which were designed to run Windows NT used various modified versions of the ARC boot console to boot windows. Among these computers were the MIPS Magnum; all of the DEC Alpha-based machines with a PCI bus and which were designed prior to the end of support for Windows NT/Alpha in September, 1999; and most Windows NT-capable PowerPC computers (such as the IBM RS6000 40/P and the BeBox). It was also predicted that Intel 386-based computers would adopt the ARC console, although this did not occur.

Companies which produced products complying (to some degree) with the ARC standard include:

• Microsoft
• SGI
• Siemens-Nixdorf in RM200
• Acer in PICA
• MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. in MIPS Magnum
• Olivetti in M700
• NEC in NEC RISCstation

External links:

• Linux-MIPS [ARC (http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/index.php/ARC)] article