What hardware do I need to run IBM OS/2 Warp? Do I need a PS/2?
You need any ISA (AT bus), EISA, VESA LocalBus, PCI, or Microchannel PC compatible with at least an 80386SX CPU, 4 MB (6 MB or more strongly recommended) of RAM, an 80 MB or larger hard disk (with 20-70 MB free, depending on which features you wish to install), a supported video adapter (CGA, EGA, VGA, SuperVGA, 8514/A, XGA, or third party driver) with appropriate display (VGA or better strongly recommended), and a high density 3.5 inch diskette drive for installation. A mouse or other pointing device is strongly recommended. Allow extra RAM and hard disk space for OS/2-based networking [see (3.8) Networking Products], Extended Services [see (3.10) Extended Services], and/or extra system loads (i.e. an extraordinary number of large applications running simultaneously). When calculating hard disk space requirements, subtract space occupied by files already on the hard disk which are functionally included in OS/2 Warp and may be deleted, e.g. DOS, a 386 memory manager, Adobe Type Manager [see (5.5) Adobe Type Manager] with base typefaces, etc.
The performance of OS/2 Warp itself will not be increased appreciably with the addition of a math coprocessor. However, certain applications may benefit.
The Workplace Shell (WPS) will not operate with the Monochrome Display Adapter or the Hercules Monochrome Graphics Adapter. Usually the WPS will fail to work with monochrome EGA. However, some EGA adapters (e.g. Paradise Monochrome EGA Card, ATI EGA Wonder) will emulate all color EGA modes on TTL monochrome monitors and, thus, will work with the WPS.
The following dual monitor configurations are supported: VGA (or most SuperVGA) with Monochrome Display Adapter (not Hercules), 8514/A with VGA, XGA with VGA, and XGA with one or more other XGA. A secondary monitor is most often used with code debuggers that explicitly support such configurations. The Workplace Shell desktop is currently shown only on the primary display (except for the STB MVP-2 and MVP-4 ISA and Microchannel display adapters which do support the Workplace Shell desktop spanning multiple monitors -- contact STB at 214-234-8750 or FAX 214-234-1306 for more information; and the Double Edge video card from Nth Graphics, phone 800-624-7552).
OS/2 Warp specifically supports hard drive adapters which conform to the Western Digital chipset interface standard (nearly all MFM, RLL, IDE, and ESDI adapters) and Adaptec, Future Domain, DPT, BusLogic, MediaVision/Trantor, and IBM SCSI adapters. [True OS/2 Warp drivers for most SCSI adapters, e.g. Always, Trantor, Rancho, Procomp, Corel Systems, Seagate, Mylex, CE Infosys, Ciprico, NCR, and others are available directly from the adapter manufacturers or from (3.2) Shareware and Freeware Sources.] In addition, "generic" INT13 support is provided for all other hard disk adapters. This "generic" support even embraces such devices as Iomega's Bernoulli and SyQuest's removeable media products (but for best results contact Iomega or SyQuest for an OS/2 Warp driver).
OS/2 Warp driver support is available for nearly all CD-ROM drives. The list below describes the drivers included with OS/2 Warp. If your CD-ROM drive is not on the list, it is in all likelihood a close cousin (or follow-on model) to one of the CD-ROM drives on the list, and OS/2 Warp will automatically recognize it using the closest match. Be sure to ask the manufacturer of your CD-ROM drive for advice if OS/2 Warp is not recognizing it.
Most IDE CD-ROM drives are also supported. For CD-ROM drives that use their own adapter cards (that are not attached to SCSI adapters), you may need to know which interrupt (IRQ), DMA channel (if any), and port addresses are used by the CD-ROM adapter in order to correctly configure OS/2 Warp. Please consult the printed OS/2 Warp manual for guidance.
OS/2 Warp's CD-ROM support includes audio, ISO 9660/High Sierra, CD-ROM/XA, and Kodak Photo CD (including multisession) compatibility for those CD-ROM drives which support these standards. An OS/2 Warp CD-ROM device driver automatically provides CD-ROM services to DOS and Windows applications running under OS/2 Warp. In other words, you do not need to load DOS CD-ROM device drivers when you are running OS/2 Warp. However, in the unlikely event you cannot locate an OS/2 Warp driver for your CD-ROM drive, you may use the DOS CD-ROM device drivers in a specific DOS session [see (5.9) Specific DOS Sessions for details].
OS/2 Warp drivers for some non-SCSI Hitachi CD-ROM models are available by calling either Laser Resources (800-535-2737) or Proline (415-692-5262); ask for CDREXT5D. Storage Devices offers OS/2 drivers for its parallel port attached peripherals, including its CD-ROM drive.
See (2.3) Printer Support for information on OS/2 printer and plotter compatibility.
OS/2 Warp is explicitly supported on non-IBM PC compatibles. IBM is offering a money back compatibility guarantee in the U.S. Should OS/2 Warp fail to work on your compatible within the first 90 days of use, and should IBM be unable to fix the problem, your purchase price will be refunded. To date over 2000 non-IBM models have been tested in IBM's own labs.
Related information:
(3.2) Shareware and Freeware Sources (3.8) Networking Products (3.10) Extended Services (5.5) Adobe Type Manager (5.9) Specific DOS Sessions
Converted by IPF2HTML v0.4 on Wed May 10 13:14:33 EDT 1995
The OS/2 Webmasters (os2www@mit.edu)