System Requirements

ARC is efficient and runs on lower-scale PCs on Micorosft Windows 10. Efficiency does not mean we recommend low-scale PCs for complex or advanced robots, even though the software runs. Unfortunately, we cannot speak for Microsoft. Therefore, it would be out of scope for Synthiam to list all of the operating systems that Microsoft has discontinued, and therefore, Synthiam does not support them. Microsoft's only operating system for current mainstream support is Windows 10, which is why it is a worldwide understanding that "running on windows" means "runs on windows 10" since 2015.


Performance

The recommended CPU is an Intel i5 equivalent with 4GB of RAM and Windows 10 or higher. The 3D designer and 3D instruction interface will use video hardware acceleration if available.

The most significant CPU demand will be from video processing options. High-resolution and multiple video-processing tracking types are the most critical contributors to video processing CPU usage. Take this into consideration when selecting a PC.

For additional information regarding selecting a PC, visit the Getting Started guide.


Q: Does ARC work on Windows 8?

Windows 8 was discontinued for mainstream support by Microsoft on January 9th, 2019. Most ARC features will not be compatible with a discontinued operating system because it no longer receives updates from its author (Microsoft).

We advise upgrading if a computer runs an older version of Windows before Windows 10. Since Windows 10 (launched July 29th, 2015) has been the only mainstream OS supported by Microsoft and should be the only operating system you use from Microsoft. Microsoft offers a free upgrade path to Windows 10 to anyone using previous versions of windows. 

  • New features were not there before and therefore required to use of the new feature. ARC uses many underlying operating system features to make robot programming a positive experience. Also, ARC features involving speech recognition, synthesis, machine learning, etc., will require newer libraries installed with Windows 10.
  • Bug fixes are updates that prevent the operating system or program from crashing or misbehaving. ARC's stability is dependent on the latest Windows 10 updates. Synthiam performs rigorous tests on ARC before release and is tested with the latest public updates.
  • Security updates fix holes that prevent other malicious users from gaining unwanted access to your system.