Advanced RISC Computing is a specification promulgated by a defunct consortium of computer manufacturers (the Advanced Computing Environment project), setting forth a standard MIPS RISC-based computer hardware and firmware environment.

Although ACE went defunct, and although no computer was ever manufactured which fully complied with the ARC standard, nonetheless the ARC system still exerts a widespread legacy in that all Microsoft Windows NT-based operating systems (such as Windows XP) use ARC conventions for naming boot devices and other aspects of operating system design.

Further, Silicon_Graphics uses a modified version of the ARC firmware (which it calls ARCS) in its workstations. All SGI computers which run IRIX 6.1 or later (such as the SGI Indy, SGI Octane, etc. ) boot from an ARCS console (which uses the same drive naming conventions as Windows, accordingly).

In addition, a majority of the RISC-based computers from the early and mid-1990s which were designed to run Windows NT used various modified versions of the ARC boot console to boot windows. Among these computers were the MIPS Magnum; all of the DEC Alpha-based machines with a PCI bus and which were designed prior to the end of support for Windows NT/Alpha in September, 1999; and most Windows NT-capable PowerPC computers (such as the IBM RS6000 40/P). It was also predicted that Intel 386-based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever marketed such i386-based machines with ARC firmware (namely, the SGI Visual Workstation series, which went on sale in 1999).

Companies which produced products complying (to some degree) with the ARC standard include: *Microsoft Jazz (computer) (MIPS) *Silicon_Graphics (MIPS) *Siemens AG in SNI RM200 (MIPS) *Acer (company) in Acer PICA (MIPS) *DeskStation Tyne (MIPS) *DeskStation Raptor (ALPHA) *MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. in MIPS Magnum (MIPS) *Olivetti in Olivetti M700 (MIPS) *NEC in NEC RISCstation (MIPS) *NeTpower Fastseries MP (MIPS) *Carrera Computers, Inc Cobra R4000 and VIPER (MIPS)

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