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 Jazz architecture and used a MIPS Technologies R4000 or R4400 microprocessor. The computer was designed to run Windows NT, 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