PC 98 Design Guide
Rev. 0.6 (For Industry Review)

Intel and Microsoft invite interested members of the PC industry to comment on the draft version of the PC 98 Design Guide until May 9, 1997. Act now to be a part of this important PC industry effort.

PC 98 is designed to boost end-user satisfaction with the quality, functionality and ease-of-use of personal computers running the Microsoft* Windows* or Windows NT* operating systems, including desktops, laptops, workstations, new entertainment PCs and other consumer electronics. Highlights of the guide were presented in April at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Intel has been a major technical contributor to earlier PC 9X design guides. This year, due to significant platform advances such as visual computing, manageability and external system expansion which involve deeper cooperation of the hardware and software elements, Intel will co-author PC 98 with Microsoft.

You can provide feedback by editing or annotating the text files and returning to the Intel email address below. If you prefer, comment forms are also included in the download file which can be returned to Intel or Microsoft. Feedback can be directed to Microsoft at PC98@microsoft.com or to Intel at PC98@intel.com

A 0.7 draft will be created from your feedback in early May followed by an industry committee review in late May. Progress of the review process will be available from this web site. The final version of the PC 98 Design Guide will be made available here this summer.

This 0.6 Reviewer's Draft is written as an increment to the PC 97 Design Guide, meaning that only the differences between the two guidelines are noted. The complete PC 97 Hardware Design Guide is available from the Microsoft web site.

Download Rev. 0.6 Review Draft of the PC 98 Design Guide
*.zip file, 513K.

Send your comments by May 9, 1997 to: PC98@intel.com

Additional Information

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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