Acorn Risc PC Wins Gold in Educational Computing & Technology 1994/95 Awards
The Risc PC from Acorn Computers, the leading supplier of computers to schools, has been awarded first place (Gold) in the Secondary category in this year's Educational Computing & Technology Awards. Readers praised the innovative design, versatility and high quality sound and graphics performance of the Risc PC which was launched to much critical acclaim in April last year, and gave the thumbs up to the Acorn platform across the board, with six out of the nine awards going to cross-platform solutions which support the Acorn environment.
Visitors will be able to see the excellent design features, powerful multimedia performance and functionality which the Gold winning Risc PC offers schools on the Acorn stand at BETT. For the very first time, Risc PCs will be shown running IBM PC 486 cards, enabling Risc PCs to run both IBM PC, Windows, and Acorn RISC OS software.
Mark Sealey, editor, Educational Computing & Technology, said:
"It is heartening to see that the computer industry is still developing such a variety of high quality, innovative new resources which are valued by teaching professionals and pupils alike. Our readers recognise that the Acorn Risc PC, for example, is a truly ground breaking product which has simply got it 'spot on' as far as educationalists are concerned. In fact, all of the winning products in this year's ECT awards have made a valuable and original contribution to education, both in terms of meeting curriculum requirements, and, more importantly, taking forward children's creativity and allowing them to do things that were not possible before."Dick Wallin, Secondary Sector Manager at Acorn Computers, comments:
"The Risc PC's dual nature and high performance makes it ideal for secondary schools with mixed computing environments. We have already seen a great deal of interest in the Risc PC and identified a significant change in secondary schools' purchasing trends since launch. It's tremendous to see this supported by the readers of Educational Computing & Technology who agree that the Risc PC is a world class computer."The Awards, which were presented by Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education, on 11th January at BETT 95, went to the following Acorn-related solutions:
Gold (Secondary): Risc PC from Acorn Computers
Gold (Primary): Music Box, from Topologika
Bronze (Primary): Time Detectives - Victorians, from Simon Hosler and Sherston Software
Gold (Special Needs): Clicker literacy development software program, from Crick Computing
Silver (Special Needs): Informatrix keyboard, from Concept Keyboard Company in association with Northwest SEMERC
Bronze (Special Needs): My World 2 + 2 from Northwest SEMERC
The winners of the Silver and Bronze categories (Secondary) and Silver (Primary) were still confidential when this press release was written.
Founded in 1978, with 1993 revenues of £54.3m, Acorn Computers is the leading provider of IT solutions to UK education and was the first supplier of low-cost 32-bit RISC based personal computers in 1987. Acorn works closely with a strong community of industry partners, users and software developers to provide innovative technology solutions for the education, consumer, publishing and international markets.
Acorn Computer Group plc is the holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Online Media, a division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the mission to design world class, interactive multimedia products.