Basic PC 98 Consumer and Office Issues

The Basic PC 98 system type describes a mass-market category. The vast majority of PCs now in manufacturers’ engineering plans will be able to meet the basic requirements defined in this guide. The basic levels of performance and capabilities specified for the Basic PC 98 system type should be easy to obtain.

These guidelines are open-ended. This specification provides a starting feature set that encourages differentiation among hardware manufacturers and among product lines by adding advanced features and innovative implementations.

In this guide, a new distinction is drawn between a Basic PC designed for use in a home environment and a Basic PC designed for use in a corporate environment. These distinctions are categorized as Consumer PC 98 and Office PC 98, respectively.

It is expected that a single OEM system will meet the Basic PC 98 specification and that a separate model number will add the “Consumer” or “Office” characteristics. Each of these categories is a variation on Basic PC 98, and each is based on the following characteristics:

• Consumer PC. Consumer PC 98 provides design guidelines for PCs designed for non-networked environments. This includes PCs intended for the home market in support of entertainment and game playing, plus PCs intended for Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) markets. Whatever the destination market, the Consumer PC 98 contains essentially the same hardware features and technologies, representing a baseline that can support the performance requirements for either market. The true differentiation between PCs intended for either entertainment or SOHO use is the software included with the system.

  Consumer PC 98 also comes equipped for immediate connection to the Internet using dial-up communications. To support running games, graphical applications, and entertainment and educational media titles, Consumer PC 98 includes higher quality graphics capabilities than are required for Office PC 98.

• Office PC. The greatest differentiating feature of Office PC 98 is that it supports PC 98 requirements intended to reduce TCO in the corporate environment, including support for an upgradable BIOS and remote boot capabilities.

Office PC 98 is designed to run productivity applications, particularly in a network environment. Office PC 98 comes equipped with a network adapter.

The following tables summarize the basic components for each system type.

Consumer PC 98 System Summary