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ACE ARM-Switcher

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ACE ARMSwitcher top

 ACE ARM-Switcher (top)

The ACE ARM Switcher board has connectors for 2 CPUs, one an ARM 610 or 710, the other a StrongARM CPU. The red LEDs on the left indicates which CPU is in use.

ACE ARMSwitcher bottom

 ACE ARM-Switcher (bottom) 

The bottom of the ARM-Switcher showing the connector which plugs into a Risc PC processor socket. From my tests it appears that the ARM-Switcher can be plugged into either socket.

ACE ARMSwitcher with CPUs

 ACE ARM-Switcher with CPUs 

This ARM-Switcher has an ARM 710 in the front and a StrongARM CPU at the back. The attached switch is used to switch between CPUs. The Risc PC has to be rebooted when the CPU is switched.

ACE ARMSwitcher in Risc PC

ACE ARM-Switcher in Risc PC   

The ARM-Switcher mounted in the front processor socket in a Risc PC 700. The red LED indicates that the ARM 710 CPU is being used.

ACE ARM-Switcher booting ARM710

 ACE ARM-Switcher booting ARM 710 CPU 

A screenshot showing the Risc PC booting with the ARM 710 processor enabled.

ACE ARMSwitcher booting StrongARM

 ACE ARM-Switcher booting StrongARM CPU 

Ascreen shot showing the Risc PC booting with the StongARM processor enabled.

The ARM-Switcher was developed by the German company ACE (Acorn Computer Enterprises) to allow a Risc PC to support both the ARM 610/710 and StrongARM processors, allowing the user to switch between CPUs without having to open the case and repace the processor card. When switching between CPUs, it is necessary to reboot the Risc PC. It appears that the ARM-Switcher is incompatible with a Risc PC Network Interface card because they overlap.

Potentially this was very useful, but RISC OS software was rapidly made StrongARM compatible and the ARM Club's StrongGuard provided a software alternative so the market rapidly disappeared.

Q-Tec sold the ARM-Switcher in the UK.

I have no documentation for the ARM-Switcher.