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Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) is aspecification created by a defunct consortium ofcomputer manufacturers (theAdvanced Computing Environment project), setting forth a standardMIPSRISC-based computerhardware andfirmware environment. The firmware onAlpha machines that are compatible with ARC is known asAlphaBIOS, non-ARC firmware on Alpha is known asSRM.^{[dubious –discuss]}

Although ACE went defunct, and no computer was ever manufactured which fully complied with the ARC standard, the ARC system has a widespread legacy in that all operating systems in theWindows NT family use ARC conventions for namingboot devices.^[1][2]SGI's modified version of the ARC firmware is named ARCS. All SGI computers which runIRIX 6.1 or later, such as theIndy andOctane, boot from an ARCS console, which uses the same drive naming conventions as Windows. Most of the various RISC-based computers designed to run Windows NT have versions of the ARC boot console to boot NT. These include the following:

• MIPS R4000-based systems such as theMIPS Magnum workstation
• allAlpha-based machines with aPCI bus designed prior to the end of support for Windows NT Alpha in September 1999 (the Alpha ARC firmware is also known asAlphaBIOS; non-ARC Alphas useSRM console instead)
• most Windows NT-capablePowerPC computers (such as the IBMRS/6000 40P).

It was predicted thatIntelIA-32-based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever marketed such machines with ARC firmware (namely, theSGI Visual Workstation series, which launched in 1999).

Compared to UEFI, the ARC firmware also included support for FAT, boot variables, C-calling interface. It did not include the same level of extensibility as UEFI and the same level of governance like with theUEFI Forum.^{[3][independent source needed]}

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

• Alpha
  • DEC Multia andAlphaStation/AlphaServer
  • DeskStation Raptor
• i386
  • SGI Visual Workstation
• MIPS
  • Acer PICA
  • Carrera Computers, Inc Cobra R4000 and VIPER
  • DigitalDECstation 5000
  • DeskStation Tyne
  • MicrosoftJazz
  • MIPS Magnum
  • Olivetti M700
  • NEC RISCstation
  • NeTpowerFastseries MP
  • SGIIndigo²,Indy,Challenge,Onyx,Origin etc. Big-Endian ARCS
  • Siemens-NixdorfRM200, RM300, RM400
• PowerPC
  • IBM Personal ComputerPower Series 850/830PReP
  • IBMRS/6000 40P, 43P, E20, F30
  • Motorola PowerStack
  • Tangent MediaStar

• ARC on www.linux-mips.org
• Advanced RISC Computing Specification Version 1.2
• "The Weird Way A DEC Alpha Boots".Hackaday.

• Advanced RISC Computing
• Computer hardware standards

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