The following summarizes the important design directions and issues for PC 98.
Graphics Adapters. Requirements for 2-D and 3-D acceleration are refined for PC 98, and new requirements are introduced for supporting a video port and DirectDraw VPE for improved display of video playback.
Video, Still Image, and Broadcast Capabilities. New support and capabilities in the operating system, including kernel-streaming support implemented under WDM as well as hardware advances in the industry, have influenced changes in the hardware design requirements for video and still-image components. Principally, PC 98 guidelines for video technologies clarify requirements for MPEG-2 playback and define performance requirements for data transfer and playback quality. New requirements are defined for digital broadcast or satellite television.
Audio. The PC 98 requirements specify guidelines for digital-output readiness and new performance metrics.
Storage. The PC 98 requirements complete the migration to bus master support for all controllers and devices. Other changes clarify implementation requirements for DVD, again emphasizing the importance of bus mastering. The migration away from ISA and toward IEEE 1394 for storage is emphasized in the design recommendations.
Modems. New requirements, including new guidelines for controllerless and software modems, are defined for PC 98 so as to stay abreast with changes in the current specifications and in the modem industry. An important design issue is the emphasis on migration away from ISA.
Networking Communications. All network devices, including network interface cards, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and ISDN implemented as a network adapter, must be implemented with NDIS 5.0 drivers and new Windows-style INF files. In addition, all network adapters must have performance capabilities for filtering multiple multicast addresses in order to support new “push” technologies for applications such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. For a PC 98 system that uses a network adapter as a boot device to support installing the operating system, the network adapter must be compatible with remote new system setup capabilities defined for manageability.
Complete details about the design changes and new requirements are provided in Part 4 of this guide.