ARC meaning in Information Technology ?

What is Advanced RISC Computing mean?

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 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 the Windows NT family use ARC conventions for naming boot devices. SGI's modified version of the ARC firmware is named ARCS. All SGI computers which run IRIX 6.1 or later, such as the Indy and Octane, 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 the MIPS Magnum workstationall 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 is also known as AlphaBIOS)most Windows NT-capable PowerPC computers (such as the IBM RS/6000 40P).

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

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

AlphaDEC Multia and AlphaStation/AlphaServerDeskStation Raptori386SGI Visual WorkstationMIPSAcer PICACarrera Computers, Inc Cobra R4000 and VIPERDigital DECstation 5000DeskStation TyneMicrosoft JazzMIPS MagnumOlivetti M700NEC RISCstationNeTpower Fastseries MPSGI Indigo², Indy, Challenge, Onyx, Origin etc. Big-Endian ARCSSiemens-Nixdorf RM200, RM300, RM400PowerPCIBM Personal Computer Power Series 850/830 PRePIBM RS/6000 40P, 43P, E20, F30Motorola PowerStackTangent MediaStar reference