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Advanced Risc Computing




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: ''not to be confused with Advanced RISC Machines ''

Advanced RISC Computing ('''ARC''') 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 ) used ARC conventions for naming boot devices prior to Windows Vista .

Further, SGI uses a modified version of the ARC firmware (which it calls ARCS ) in its systems. 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, most of the various RISC-based computers designed to run Windows NT used versions of the ARC boot console to boot NT. Among these computers were:

  • MIPS R4000-based systems such as the MIPS Magnum workstation

  • all DEC Alpha -based machines with a PCI bus designed prior to the end of support for Windows NT Alpha in September 1999 (the Alpha ARC firmware was also known as AlphaBIOS)

  • most Windows NT-capable PowerPC computers (such as the IBM RS/6000 40P).


It was also predicted that Intel IA-32 -based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever marketed such IA-32-based machines with ARC firmware (namely, the SGI Visual Workstation series, which went on sale in 1999).

Products complying (to some degree) with the ARC standard include:


EXTERNAL LINKS

  • Linux-MIPS ( ARC ) article