Physical Design Requirements

This section presents the requirements related to the physical design of servers.

Icons are provided for all external connectors

Required

This requirement helps ensure that the end user can correctly make the physical connections required for adding a device to a system. This requirement includes the following:

Wherever possible, keyed or shrouded connectors or other configurations should be used to prevent misconnection. The physical design of the connector must ensure that the user cannot mistakenly insert the connector into the wrong port.
Icons are provided for all external connectors. The icons can be molded, printed, or affixed as permanent stickers, which can include text. Icons can be based on existing vendor designs or on the examples shown at http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/desguid/icons.htm.
Systems and peripherals must use a color-coding scheme for connectors and ports. The following list displays the recommendation for standard color coding of connectors and ports. The selection of these specific colors was done using criteria established by Human Factors and Industrial Design professionals from multiple companies who are involved in the design of computer hardware.

Connector	Recommended color	Pantone
Analog VGA	Blue	661C
Audio line in	Light blue	284C
Audio line out	Lime	577C
Digital monitor/flat panel	White
IEEE 1394	Grey	424C
Microphone	Pink	701C
MIDI/game	Gold	131C
Parallel	Burgundy	235C
PS/2-compatible keyboard	Purple	2715C
PS/2-compatible mouse	Green	3395C
Serial	Teal or Turquoise	322C
Speaker out/subwoofer	Orange	157C
Right-to-left speaker	Brown	4645C
USB	Black	426C
Video out	Yellow	123C
SCSI, network, telephone, modem, and so on	None	—

It is recommended that retail peripherals also implement color coding, and those that do are required to use the colors in order to correspond with servers that adopt this scheme.

Note: It is recognized that the design for legacy ports, such as the PS/2-compatible mouse and keyboard ports, analog audio and video jacks, and the microphone and speaker jacks, will not change and therefore cannot fully meet this requirement. However, icons and labels must be provided wherever possible to help the user make the correct connections.

All expansion slots in the system are accessible for users to insert cards

Required

The space for expansion cards that will reside in associated expansion slots cannot be physically blocked by components or devices provided with the system. However, this requirement does not exclude configurations that provide half-height cards for some slots, passive back planes for connectors, and so on. It is understood that in order to install expansion cards in some expansion slot implementations, users might have to temporarily move other system components to gain access to the slot. In general, designers should minimize this juggling as much as possible.

System and device design include protected switches

Recommended

Switches can be covered with a hood or other protection to prevent inadvertent switching. Locks can also be provided to prevent unauthorized access.

System design includes locking case

Recommended

The computer case can be protected with key locks to prevent unauthorized access.

Other recommended features include:

Key lock removes the computer case without additional tools—if this can be done while maintaining compliance with other safety standards.
Software management of physical components as documented in Windows Hardware Instrumentation Implementation Guidelines, Version 1.0 (WHIIG), which also defines the Windows-specific requirements of the Wired for Management Baseline Specification, Version 2.0, for hardware instrumentation.

System and device design include positive retention connectors

Recommended

Positive retention mechanisms should be implemented to ensure connections. The retention mechanism should be operated by hand, requiring no tools for mating and breaking the connection. It is recognized that certain legacy connector implementations, such as PS/2-compatible pointing devices and keyboards, will not generally allow this. However, locking cable connections provide a valuable feature for end users.

Parallel port design provides sufficient space for connector assembly

Required

The parallel port design must provide enough space between the connectors and the surrounding enclosure to allow for a mating connector, connector shell, and latch assembly. The IEEE 1284 specification recommends an IEEE 1284-C connector for all new ports and devices.