Public Statement - Risc PC 486 Card
Functional testing of the Acorn Risc PC 486 Card has now been successfully completed, and the special build programme of 500 valuation cards for identified press, dealers, educationalists and customers is underway. The first batch of 150 evaluation cards have already been delivered to their recipients, with a further 350 evaluation cards to follow from the beginning of March.
During the test programme, a number of minor modifications were deemed necessary and incorporated into PCB, and as a result of this additional design work product will now be generally available in April.
The test programme has confirmed a high degree of compatibility, with the card running DOS, Windows and all DOS and Windows applications from major developers tested to date. The test programme has also proved the design features of the Risc PC architecture, which enables low cost, high performance 'plug and play' second processor upgrades.
The response from all those who have had an opportunity to use the test cards or seen them demonstrated has been very positive on the performance, responsiveness and overall 'feel' of the product.
Users perception of the product is that of using a similar 33 MHz 486 PC, and there is little observable difference when the same applications are run alongside an equivalent specification PC.
Future enhancements to the Risc PC 486 Card Together with Aleph One and FTDI, Acorn has undertaken the development of a MK II ASIC incorporating modifications which will enable an issue 2 Risc PC 486 Card to be available in Q3 of 1995.
The modifications in the MK II ASIC will also facilitate the delivery of a range of enhanced Risc PC 486 Cards, using high specification 486 processors, and these product will be developed and marketed by Aleph One.
Further developments
Acorn intends to release a number of software enhancements, in collaboration with its partners, which will offer performance and improvements in areas such as disk access, screen upgrade, colour depth and graphics speed. In addition, integration into the ISAdaptor is also planned.
It is anticipated that BIOS and device driver support will be developed to allow the support of the OS/2 Warp and Unix operating systems.
January 1995 - Original Specifications
September 1995 software update - Press Release.
September 1995 software update - Q+A