Hardware Support Levels

OS/2 Version 2.0 has been designed to run on both IBM and non-IBM (OEM) personal computers which incorporate processors from the Intel 80386 or 80486 families. The specific OEM models and their devices that are supported is a matter of testing and verification. IBM in conjunction with OEMs have tested OS/2 V2.0 on many OEM models and verified correct operation for those models tested. This process of verification is ongoing and more models are being added to the list of personal computers, on which OS/2 V2.0 will run, all the time. The architecture and design of OS/2 V2.0 supports OEM models in the following ways:

  • All Machine Readable Information (MRI), text messages, online help, etc. is generic wherever possible. This generality means end user system text does not contain IBM or OEM specific references.

  • Program code is generic wherever possible. This generality means it is not hard coded to recognize and handle only IBM specific systems or conditions.

  • The device driver architecture has been enhanced to allow OEMs and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) to more easily replace and add device support through the layered device driver architecture.

    In this section we discuss the factors that determine whether OS/2 V2.0 will run on a particular hardware configuration. We also look at which of the hardware features of the system OS/2 V2.0 exploits.

    A design point of OS/2 V2.0 is that it will enable support for a feature if it can do so without compromising the integrity of the system. This design point means that OS/2 V2.0 will only use a feature if it can do so reliably.

    The first topic covered is the usage of large main memory, that is, systems with more than 16MB of RAM.

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