Risc PC

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Risc PC is a range of personal computers launched in 1994 by Acorn, replacing the Archimedes series. The machines use an ARM CPU, developed by Acorn spinoff company ARM, and were thereby not IBM PC-compatible. At launch, the original Risc PC 600 model was fitted as standard with an ARM610, a 32-bit RISC CPU (with 26-bit address bus) with 4 KB of cache and clocked at 30 MHz. CPU technology advanced rapidly in this period though and within only two years a DEC StrongARM could be installed at 233 MHz which was around 8 times faster. The machines were supplied with the RISC OS operating system which has a windowed cooperative multitasking design. Unusually for a PC of the period the O/S was stored in ROM, which enabled a relatively fast boot time. In addition Acorn sold a Virtual PC package that permitted x86 applications to be run in a virtual machine; they also supported the development of an ARM Linux distribution from 1996. In contrast to most contemporary IBM clones, the machines supported multiple processors as a standard feature. Secondary (or "guest") CPUs did not need to be ARM-based and could be an entirely different architecture. It was possible to add an x86 CPU which enabled use of operating systems including DOS and Windows 95. Cards could often be added to other machines of the era to run DOS software but more usually these would implement the majority of an IBM PC clone on the card. The Risc PC required only the addition of the relevant CPU with some interface logic. Alternative operating systems ran concurrently with RISC OS in a window. Applications from both operating systems could run at the same time in a similar fashion to a virtual machine with data shared between them. While now a...