PC 98 System Design Guide
Draft 0.9 Available for Industry Review

Intel and Microsoft would like to thank the many companies who contributed comments and content to the Draft 0.6 of the PC 98 System Design Guide. The ample feedback was very consistent and few major issues were raised with the document. We feel comfortable, therefore, in advancing to Draft 0.9 for further industry review – we would appreciate your additional review and feedback, on the forms provided, prior to August 1st.

This Draft 0.9 integrates Draft 0.6 with the unchanged text from PC 97. Reviewer comments and requests for clarifications make up the remainder of this new draft. Major changes are indicated with "New for this review" or "Corrected for this review" preceding each new requirement or recommendation. There is also a Review Comment File for each part of the guide that matches current item numbers in each chapter with its corresponding item number in Draft 0.6, plus a summary of the items deleted in each chapter. Many deletions represent editorial removal of redundant requirements; all other changes in this text represent copy-editing corrections or editorial changes to clarify requirement names and simplify the organization. The requirements are essentially unchanged, but the redundant statement of common items such as Plug and Play or power management requirements have been reduced to single statements.

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Important: Additional interim reviews will be published for Manageability guidelines and requirements related to digital television capabilities. These reviews will be published in July on this web site, but if you would like to receive direct notice by e-mail as soon as these reviews are available, please send your name, company name, and contact information to PC98@intel.com with "Interim Review" in the Subject line.

Download Complete document including Review Comments forms.
(Download: 1,038K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)
Note that Appendix E, the Network PC System Design Guidelines, is not included to save on download time; this is unchanged from the source document which may be downloaded from the Network PC Home Page. It is also included in "Part 5".

Download Part 1: Welcome, Design Issues, New Design Initiatives
(Download: 319K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)

Download Part 2: System Design -- Basic PC 98, Workstation, Entertainment PC, Mobile PC
(Download: 108K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)

Download Part 3: Bus Design -- USB, IEEE 1394, PCI, IDE, SCSI, PC Card
(Download: 136K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)

Download Part 4: Device Design -- I/O, Graphics, Video, Monitors, Audio, Storage, Modems, Networks, Printers, Digital Imaging
(Download: 326K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)

Download Reference: Icons, Accessibility, Legacy Support, Network PC Guidelines, Glossary
(Download: 315K self-extracting zip file, published: June 27, 1997)

Comments should be sent to PC98@intel.com; all comments will be automatically reflected to PC98@microsoft.com.

Please provide feedback by using a text editor to enter your comments in the Review Forms included in the download packages. Then return your review document to PC98@intel.com prior to August 1, 1997.

Make sure that the appropriate person is reviewing each section of the design guide. For each particular section, the reviewer should be a lead design engineer or similar person who is familiar with both the engineering issues as well as your future product directions for the related topic. It is especially helpful if the reviewer is also well-informed about current changes and future trends occurring in the industry for a particular topic.

Also, please focus on whether the details in this guide support your hardware design initiatives. For example, the features specified for PC 98 audio should support quality, but not specific implementations for audio. If you believe that a key design initiative for your company is being precluded by this document, let us know now. This is NOT the intent of this document. We want to encourage innovation in ways that are testable and compatible with operating system capabilities in 1998-99, and that support the PC 98 goals for an optimal user experience.

If you disagree with a particular proposed requirement, you must provide alternative wording or another requirement in order for the PC 98 team to evaluate alternatives that might resolve your issues.

PC 98 Design Guide goals include the following:

• Advance the quality of PC hardware, firmware, and device drivers by encouraging PC hardware platform initiatives and technical capabilities.
• Ensure the availability of lower-cost PCs.
• Encourage innovation, so manufacturers and designers can pursue new solutions and advances in hardware. The PC 98 Design Guide enables new users and new PC use by encouraging new platform types and models.

PC 98 offers guidelines for achieving the following:

• Systems that take advantage of the new capabilities available in the next versions of Windows and Windows NT.
• Systems that support visual computing through new graphics and video device capabilities, DVD, scanners and digital cameras, and other devices.
• Systems that support OnNow power management, including the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification, Plug and Play device configuration, and power management in PC systems.
• Systems that support the latest manageability interfaces targeted at reducing the cost of ownership in the enterprise, improving the value of corporate PC usage and driving simplicity in managing PCs in the corporate environment.

Key additions to the PC 98 Design Guide include:

Graphics Adapters: 2-D and 3-D acceleration are refined for PC 98, and new topics are introduced for supporting accelerated graphics port (AGP), a video port and the DirectDraw Video Port Extensions (VPE) for improved display of video playback.
Video, Still Image and Broadcast Capabilities: To take advantage of new video and other imaging support in Windows and in new hardware, the design guide highlights MPEG-2 playback, data transfer and playback quality, digital TV, and digital satellite TV.
Audio: The design guide audio chapter differentiates performance expectations for consumer vs. business audio, including digital output readiness and new performance metrics.
Storage: The design guide completes the migration to bus master support for all controllers and devices. Other changes clarify implementation issues for DVD, emphasizing the importance of bus mastering and the migration from ISA to IEEE 1394 for storage.
Modems: The design guide enables PCs to keep current with new modem technology, including universal serial bus (USB) controller-less and software modems, and to migrate modems off the ISA bus.
Networking communications: The design guide also covers networking advances, requiring all network devices to be implemented with NDIS 5.0 drivers and new Windows 95-style INF files. In addition, the guide discusses how to support new "push" technologies. A PC 98 system that uses a network adapter as a boot device to support installing the operating system must have a network adapter compatible with new remote system setup capabilities defined in the Network PC (Net PC) System Design Guidelines developed by Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft.


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