Acer PICA

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Acer PICA is a computer architecture (Performance-enhanced I/O and CPU Architecture) designed by Acer circa 1993. It was based on the MIPS RISC CPU and Jazz architecture. This computer was designed to run Windows NT/MIPS, and therefore used ARC firmware to boot Windows NT.

Unlike MIPS Magnum and other Jazz computers, it was impossible to change an ARC firmware to Big-Endian variant to run RISC/os. The videocard used in the Acer PICA was based on the S3 86C805 chip, not on the G364 framebuffer.

Acer Formula was a personal workstation based on the Acer PICA architecture. NEC has sold the ACER PICA under the OEM name RISCStation Image.

[edit] Sources

• "Mips Challenges Intel on Its Own Turf" Tom R. Halfhill, BYTE June 1993, p.80
• "RISC workstations: ready for the desktop?" PC Magazine May 1994.

[edit] See also

• DeskStation Technology