| Advanced Risc Computing |
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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). It was also predicted that Intel 386 -based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever marketed such i386-based machines with ARC firmware (namely, the SGI Visual Workstation series, which went on sale in 1999). Companies which produced products complying (to some degree) with the ARC standard include:
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