News from Acorn Computers - Release Date: 25th October 1994 IBM's Blue Micro to Manufacture Risc PC Cards for Acorn ------------------------------------------------------- Acorn Computers Ltd, the world's first supplier of 32-bit RISC personal computers, has announced a partnership agreement with Blue Micro, the exclusive manufacturer's representatives for IBM Microelectronics in the UK. As part of this relationship, IBM will manufacture the new 486 PC card for the Acorn Risc PC range at its plant in Vimercate, near Milan, Italy. The new card allows users to access shrink wrapped PC software, alongside software designed for the RISC processor. The Risc PC 486 Card has been developed by Acorn in conjunction with leading Acorn developer, Aleph One and specialist ASIC design company Future Technology Devices International. The card co-exists with an ARM RISC processor card and fits into Acorn's Open Bus enabling the PC software to run without emulation. The Risc PC 486 card will be supplied with an off-the-shelf version of IBM's PC DOS, user manual and software drivers which will allow the PC card to exploit the graphics capability of the Risc PC. Commenting on the new announcement, Acorn's Product Marketing Manager, Peter Bondar comments: "Acorn has enhanced the design of the Risc PC 486 card and at the same time concluded its negotiations with IBM. We have always known that our product provided true PC capability and the new partnership with IBM is a strong endorsement of this." Initially, production is planned to start with 500 privileged customer evaluation cards which will begin shipping in December. Acorn plans to have at least 10,000 units produced by Blue Micro by the end of Quarter 1, 1995. Acorn's Open Bus architecture allows a wide range of additional processors to be developed. Acorn and Blue Micro view the manufacture of the card as the start of a long term, strategic relationship which could give Acorn access to a wide range of 486 compatible devices and other Blue Micro semi-conductors including PowerPC and 586 class processors. Bondar adds: "Acorn views the Risc PC 486 card as an important strategic product. The card supports our policy of providing users with access to the widest range of applications. The Risc PC can now run MS DOS and Microsoft Windows on the PC card and it is intended that the card will also support many different versions of UNIX. In the future it will also be possible to provide OS/2 support." The Risc PC 486 card is integral to Acorn's plans to provide its users with access to standard resources. Acorn machines can use PC and Macintosh discs, and transfer data using standard file formats for text, numbers and graphics. These formats include: RTF, Lotus, White and Green book CDi and PhotoCD. In addition, Acorn's 32 bit RISC computers can connect into Novell, Ethernet and ATM based networks. Bondar continues: "The PC 486 card allows us to complement our own operating system, RISC OS. This brought windows, drag and drop and the ability to run DOS applications in a window, in 1988. Our own developments continue apace and we are working with a wide range of partners to provide even more to our users in our native environment. Our users are aware that we have the platform to ensure they can run the best native software, or multimedia solutions on CD ROM, while also having the choice to use applications only available on PCs." Founded in 1978, with 1993 revenues of 54.3m, Acorn Computers is the premier supplier of IT solutions to UK education and has been the leading provider of low cost 32-bit RISC based personal computers since 1987. Acorn works closely with a strong community of industry partners, users and software developers to provide innovative technology solutions for the education, consumer, publishing and international markets. The Acorn Computer Group is a holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn Computer Group owns 43% of ARM Ltd. Online Media, a division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the mission to design world class, interactive multimedia products. --- Acorn and the Acorn device are registered trademarks. The Risc PC and the Risc PC logo (subject to registered trademark application 1569058) are trademarks of Acorn Computers. PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines. Microsoft is registered, Windows is a trademark of Microsoft. All other trademarks acknowledged. _______________________________________________________________________________ aglo...@acorn.co.uk, moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce. Submissions to announce-requ...@acorn.co.uk, other related mail to announ...@acorn.co.uk.