Acorn Computers Launches the Risc PC Range
Acorn Computers, the leading supplier of 32-bit RISC based personal computers, has today announced a new family of Acorn products. The Acorn Risc PC is based on a new architecture offering significantly increased speed and graphics, and enhanced functionality and connectivity.
The Risc PC's improved performance is enabled by: the ARM 610 RISC processor; full 24-bit colour support; unique second processor capability, offering users access to other environments such as DOS or Windows; and an innovative modular case design allowing easy and low-cost expansion. This is all supported by the latest release of RISC OS, Acorn's acclaimed operating environment. Compatible with over 90% of existing RISC OS software, the Acorn Risc PC will be launched with over 3,000 software applications already available.
Sam Wauchope, Managing Director of Acorn Computers comments:
"The launch of the Risc PC marks a major leap forward in technology for Acorn and its customers. The innovative design of the Risc PC offers exceptional performance and value for money. In terms of speed, graphics and true multimedia, the Risc PC is the best personal computer available today.Risc PC's compatibility with existing software, coupled with a guaranteed low-cost processor upgrade path, and simple and effective expansion with industry standard memory and peripherals, ensures that existing and new Acorn customers have their investment protected for the future. As the requirements of our users develop, Risc PC will be able to cope with and exceed these."
Acorn is committed to the innovative use of technology and works with industry partners and customers to provide appropriate systems for its target markets. As a result, Acorn has developed a product line-up that matches both the market's expectations and open system requirements.
Initially three product configurations will be offered.
Founded in 1978, with 1992 revenues of £48.2m, Acorn Computers is the premier supplier of IT solutions to UK education and has been the leading provider of 32-bit RISC based personal computers since 1987. In 1990, Acorn established an associate company, Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) in a joint venture with Apple Computer and VLSI Technology Inc to develop and exploit further Acorn's RISC processor technology. Acorn works closely with a strong community of other industry partners, users and software developers to provide innovative technology solutions for the education, consumer, publishing and international markets. Acorn Computers Limited is part of the Acorn Computer Group plc, which went public on the USM in 1983.
Technical Overview
Future upgradeability is guaranteed as faster versions of the ARM 600 and future generations of the ARM700 (Q4 1994) and ARM800 will be available for use in the Acorn RISC family for seamless migration.
Risc PC can address up to 256MB of memory, and although current technology limits its physical memory to 128MB using commercially available DRAM, the Risc PC has more than enough RAM to load and manipulate the largest full-colour images and combine them with text, graphics, video and sound. Risc PC also supports up to 2MB of VRAM.
The first of these second processors to be offered on the Risc PC will be a 25/33 Mhz 486SX PC card including DOS and Windows. With a PC Card fitted, the Risc PC will behave just like an ordinary 486 PC with Windows and a graphics accelerator offering SVGA video (800 x 600 x 16 million colours).
A special Application Specific IC (ASIC) is currently being developed embodying all the speed dependent PC logic. Performance will be further enhanced by an optional 32KB or 128KB secondary cache on the processor chip, which will be managed by a cache controller included in the ASIC.
It is expected that even higher performance PC cards, using the P24T type Pentium processors, will soon be introduced. Other uses of the dual processor capability are also being planned by independent developers. DMA Extended Bus Interface (DEBI)
The Risc PC can take two single-width expansion cards in its standard configuration, plus two more for every centre-section added to the system. The DEBI bus also supports Direct Memory Access (DMA), so data can be read from and written to system RAM by expansion cards, without interrupting the CPU.
The new DEBI bus makes it possible to implement even higher performance expansion cards handling large amounts of data, such as video-capture and direct-drive printer cards, which can have substantial on-card buffer memory, directly addressable to the ARM processor.
The Risc PC has eight channels of stereo sound as standard and has a built-in speaker and stereo headphones socket. This is complemented by Acorn Replay - Acorn's full motion video system. A world leader, Acorn Replay has made it possible for thousands of users to put together multimedia publications on Acorn computers at low cost. Acorn Replay's playback software, ARPlayer, is included with every Risc PC, together with a number of movies demonstrating the capabilities of Acorn Replay. Acorn's heritage in multimedia means a strong base of multimedia authoring applications already exist. These enable the user to combine video, audio, text and images in hypertext-linked documents which can be designed for interactive training, reference and project work.
Made possible by a new ARM VIDC20 video chip, a new colour picker or palette allows the user to work in one of the three colour modes - RGB, CMYK and HSV.
The optional CD-ROM drive enables the user to read Kodak Photo CD-format discs, while the video performance of the Risc PC ensures that none of the original picture quality is lost. Once displayed on the computer, PhotoCD images can be edited and dropped into multimedia publications.
The case's modular construction makes upgrading simple as the Risc PC can be taken apart in seconds without any tools. The Risc PC supports an almost limitless range of configurations and upgrades (memory, disc drives, CD drives, expansion cards, network cards and even additional processors) and therefore this ease of access is important.
The base system contains a 3.5" floppy disk drive, a hard disk (at least 210 MB), one vacant bay for a 5.25" device (eg CD ROM), two available expansion slots and a space for a networking card. Each additional system layer, or 'slice', enables the user to add an additional 3.5" device, a 5.25" device and two more expansion cards. Up to six additional slices can be added in total (the maximum number of expansion cards per system is eight.) Adding extra devices or cards is achieved very simply. Cards are slotted directly into the back of the computer; network cards and additional 3.5" or 5.25" devices involve simply removing the lid and plugging in.
System Configuration RRP ex VAT
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Acorn Risc PC 600 2MB DRAM £1249
210MB hard disk
Acorn Risc PC 600 4MB DRAM £1399
1MB VRAM
210MB hard disk
Acorn Risc PC 600 8MB DRAM £1699
1MB VRAM
420MB hard disk