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Use a Macintosh, 040 or any Power PC, or....
Minimum Multimedia PC Level 1 System Requirements
Hardware:
* 386SX or higher processor
* 2 MB RAM
* 30 MB hard disk
* VGA or VGA+ display
* Two button mouse
* 101 key keyboard
* CD-ROM drive:
o CD-DA outputs, sustained 150 kB/sec transfer rate withoutconsuming
more than 40 percent of CPU bandwidth in the process
o Average seek time of 1 second or less
o MSCDEX 2.2 driver or equivalent that implements the extendedaudio
APIs
o Subchannel Q support (P, R-W optional)
* Audio board:
o 8-bit DAC, Linear PCM sampling, 22.05 and 11.025 kHz rate,DMA/FIFO
with interrupt
o 8-bit ADC, Linear PCM sampling, 11.025 kHz rate, microphonelevel
input
o Music synthesizer
o On-board analog audio mixing capabilities
* Serial port, parallel port
* MIDI I/O port
* Joystick port
* Headphones or speakers connected to your computer system
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System Software:
Binary compatibility with Windows 3.0 plus Multimedia Extensionsor Windows
3.1
CD-ROM/ Sound Card Audio Cable Standard for MPC Components:
The following cable standards apply only to MPC components (CD-ROM drives or
sound cards sold seperately). Full systems and upgrade kits are not required
to observe the following specification:
A Multimedia PC CD-ROM drive component must include a minimun2 4 inch cable
to connect the drive's analog audio output connectorto an MPC sound card's
analog audio input connector. The cable'sopen sound card connector must be a
female 4 pin Molex 70066-G,70400-G, or 70430-G connector with 2.54 mm pitch,
or the equivalent,with the following pin assignments: pin 1- left signal,
pin 2-ground, pin 3- ground, pin 4- right signal.
A Multimedia PC sound card component must be capable of mating with the
CD-ROM audio cable by having a 2.54 mm pitch Molex 70553male connector on
the card (or the equivalent), or by includinga short patch cable. The patch
cable must plug into the non-standard sound card connector and have an open
male connector (Molex 70107-A,or the equivalent) for attaching to the CD-ROM
cable female connector.The pin assignments on the sound card connectors must
be complementary to the CD-ROM audio cable connectors. Questions
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Minimum Multimedia PC Level 2 System Requirements
Hardware:
* 25 MH 486SX or compatible microprocessor
* 4 megabytes of RAM (8 megabytes recommended)
* 3.5" Floppy drive
* Hard drive (160 MB minimum)
* Video display resolution of at least 640x480 with 65,536 (64K)colors
* Two button mouse
* 101 key Keyboard (or functional equivalent)
* CD-ROM Drive:
o Doublespeed with CD-DA outputs (Capable of sustained 300
KB/sectransfer rate)
o No more than 40% of the CPU bandwidth may be consumed when
maintaining a sustained transfer rate of 150 KB/sec
o Average seek time of 400 milliseconds or less
o 10,000 hours MTBF
o CD-ROM XA ready (mode 1 capable, mode 2 form 1 capable, mode2 form
2 capable)
o Multisession capable
o MSCDEX 2.2 driver or equivalent that implements the extended audio
APIs
o Subchannel Q support (P, R-W optional)
* Audio board:
o 16-bit DAC, Linear PCM sampling; 44.1, 22.05, and 11.025 kHzrate,
DMA/FIFO buffered transfer capability
o 16 bit ADC, Linear PCM sampling; 44.1, 22.05, and 11.025 kHzrate,
DMA/FIFO buffered transfer capability; microphone input
o Music synthesizer
o On-board analog audio mixing capabilities
o CD-ROM XA audio capability is recommended.
o Support for the IMA adopted ADPCM software algorithm is
recommended.
* Serial port
* Parallel port
* MIDI I/O port
* Joystick port
* Headphones or speakers connected to your computer system
System Software:
Binary compatibility with Windows 3.0 plus Multimedia Extensionsor Windows
3.1
CD-ROM/ Sound Card Audio Cable Standard for MPC Components- Same cable
standard as Level 1 (full systems and upgrade kits are not required to
observe this specification.)
MPC 3 Specifications
The MPC3 Specification defines the minimum system functionality for Level 3
compliance, but is not a recommendation for any particular system
configuration.
The MPC specifications are the result of industry-wide discussion and
debate. This consensus makes the MPC specification valuable in helping
create a growing installed base of standardized multimedia computers, and in
turn, creates a strong incentive for Multimedia PC software investment and
development. The MPC specifications also serve as a guide to consumers
purchasing Multimedia PCs, upgrade kits and components.
MPC3 does not replace the MPC1 and MPC2 specification; rather, it defines an
updated platform suitable for delivering enhanced multimedia functionality.
CPU RAM Hard Drive Floppy Drive
CD-ROM Drive Audio Graphics Performance Video Playback
User Input I/O System Software Definitions
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Processor
* The CPU must pass the MPC Test Suite. The MPC Test Suite is benchmarked
on a 75 MHz Pentium(R) processor system with hardware assisted MPEG1
capability and only level one cache, as well as on a 100 MHz Pentium[R]
processor system with 256KB second level cache and software MPEG. This
specification is not intended to exclude other microprocessor brands or
architectures from compliance as long as they pass the MPC Test Suite.
RAM
* 8 MB required
System test criteria
* 100 MB/sec peak memory read and write bandwidth.
Floppy Drive
* 3 1/2 inch, 1.44 MB floppy drive
* Inclusion of floppy disks in laptops is optional.
Hard Drive
* 540 MB minimum unformatted capacity.
* At least 500 MB usable capacity, excluding sections reserved for
diagnostics and other overhead.
Hard Drive Performance Test Criteria
+ No more than 40% CPU utilization for a 1.5 MB/second
sustained transfer rate under Windows 3.11 or DOS and no more
than 7% CPU utilization for a 1.5 MB/second sustained
transfer rate under Windows 95, OS/2, and Windows NT.
+ Interface transfer rate greater than or equal to 9 MB/sec.
+ Media data rate greater than or equal to 3 MB/sec.
+ Mean service time of less than 5 ms for random writes with
interarrival delay of 20 ms.
+ Average access time must be less than or equal to 20.2 ms.
+ Interface overhead less than or equal to 700(sec.
+ Average total latency (rotation + servo + retry) ( 7.5 ms
which implies > 4000 RPM.
+ Average seek less than or equal to 12 ms computed from random
I/Os exercising the entire disk.
+ Less than or equal to 10% of random I/Os will have a service
time greater than 25 ms and less than or equal to 1.0%
greater than 30 ms.
CD-ROM Drive
* Data must be transferred to the host system in block sizes of 2048,
2336 and/or 2352 bytes, as appropriate for each CD format. The data
need not include the compact Disc Audio (Red Book) data.
* Background CPU utilization: The driver must not use CPU cycles except
in response to a host system request. This does not apply to autoplay
in Windows 95.
CD Formats
+ Must be capable of reading Compact Disc Audio (Red Book)
discs, as well as Compact Disc Mode 1 and Mode 2 (form 1 and
form 2) formatted discs, including mixed mode and
multisession media as well as CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, CD
Recordable (part II), Video CD, Enhanced Music CD (CD Extra)
and CD-i discs. In addition, the drive and included driver
software must be compatible with Microsoft's MSCDEX version
2.2 or later (or equivalent), implement the extended audio
APIs and be capable of reading Q channel information.
+ CD-ROM drive with CD-DA (Red Book) outputs and volume
control.
+ CD-ROM drive must have on-board buffers and implement
read-ahead buffering.
CD Performance Test Criteria
+ Cache service greater than or equal to 1.5 MB per sec.
+ Less than or equal to 10% of random I/Os have a service time
greater than 500 ms and less than or equal to 1.0% greater
than 1000 ms.
+ No more than 40% CPU utilization for a sustained 550 KB/sec
transfer rate under Windows 3.11 or DOS and no more than 7%
CPU utilization for a sustained 550 KB/sec transfer rate
under Windows 95, OS/2, and Windows NT.
+ The CPU usage requirement should be achieved for read block
sizes no less than 16 KB and a lead time of no more than is
required to load the CD-ROM buffer with 1 read block of data.
+ Sequential access time: An application via the standard
operating system access methods must have the ability to read
sequential, error free, 16K blocks every 33.3 ms with 99.5%
of the reads taking no more than 13.3 ms.
Desktop
+ Sustained sequential transfer rate of 550 KB/sec.
+ Average service access time of less than or equal
to 250 ms (in 4x mode) computed from single sector
random reads I/Os exercising the entire 60 minute
disc.
Laptop
+ Sustained sequential transfer rate of 550 KB/sec.
+ Average service access time of less than or equal
to 400 ms (in 4x mode) computed from single sector
random reads I/Os exercising the entire 60 minute
disc.
Audio System Test Criteria
* 8/16-bit samples, with: linear PCM encoding CODEC with 8.0, 11.025,
16.0, 22.05, and 44.1sample rates; stereo channels. Full duplex support
is recommended.
* (13% for 44.1 kHz (and 7% for 22.05 kHz) CPU utilization 16-bit stereo
sound for playback or record (assumes buffered ISA to PCI DMA
transfers).
* 0.1 Vrms high impedance dynamic mono-microphone input support with
input gain control.
* Internal wave table synthesizer capabilities with multi-voice,
multi-timbral capacity, 16 simultaneous melody voices plus 6
simultaneous percussive voices.
* OPL3 FM synthesis support. This specification is not intended to
exclude other FM synthesizers as long as they pass the MPC Test Suite.
* CD-ROM drive with CD-DA (Red Book) outputs and volume control.
* Internal mixing capabilities to combine input from three (recommended
four) sources and present the output as a stereo, line-level audio
signal at the back panel. The four sources are: CD Red Book,
synthesizer, DAC (waveform), and (recommended but not required) an
auxiliary input source. Each input must have at least a 3-bit volume
control (8 steps) with a logarithmic taper. (4-bit or greater volume
control is strongly recommended). If all sources are sourced with -10dB
(consumer line level: 1 milliwatt into 600 ohms=0dB) without
attenuation, the mixer will not clip and will output between 0 dB and
+3 dB. Individual audio source and master digital volume control
registers and extra line-level audio sources are highly recommended.
Speakers: If external speakers are included in the system, the following are
required:
* Must be at least a two-piece system.
* Frequency Response from 120 Hz to 17.5 kHz.
* Power rating must be measured and tested at a minimum of 3
watts/channel at 100Hz, 1kHz and 10kHz at 1% THD; 6 watts RMS (3W+3W)
into 4 ohms, at 1% THD, at 1kHz, with both channels driven.
* Sound pressure level must be measured at 1/2 -meter on axis from
speaker and should be capable of an SPL of 92 dB from 250 HZ to 7.5
kHz.
* Input connectors are as follows: 3.5 mm stereo jack where tip is left
channel, sleeve is right channel and body is ground or audio input
using 3.5 mm stereo jack with industry standard channel orientation,
supplied with at least a six foot cable to attach to computer sound
source.
* Speaker connector must be mono type where tip is positive and body is
ground or left speaker output 3.5 mm mono jack where tip is positive
and case is negative. If stereo headphone output jack is included, it
must mute the speaker when headphone is used.
* Noise ratio must be at least 65 dB.
* Input sensitivity requires no more than 300 millivolts for rated power
output.
* Volume controls must be included in either hardware on the speaker or
in software.
* Input impedance must be greater than 5000 ohms.
* In a three-piece system, the satellites shall have the same
requirements as above.
Subwoofer Requirements:
* Frequency response must be at least 40 Hz to 250 Hz (+/- 3 dB).
* Power minimum is 15 watts at 1% THD.
* Power ratings should be measured at 40 Hz and 100 Hz at 1% THD.
* Input sensitivity must be adjustable from 300 millivolts to one volt
for maximum output power.
* Both inputs must be mixed in the woofer circuitry.
* Input impedance must be greater than 1000 ohms.
(Guidelines for synthesizer implementation available on request; includes
MIDI playback support).
Graphics Performance
* Color space conversion and scaling capability are required.
* Direct access to frame buffer for video-enabled graphics subsystem
required with a resolution of 352 x 240 at 30 fps (or 352 x 288 at 25
fps) at 15 bits/pixel, unscaled, without cropping.
Controller Performance
o PCI 2.0 compliant graphics controller.
o Write less than or equal to 14 PCI clocks per 32 bytes at 10
MB/sec.
o Wait states less than or equal to 16 PCI clocks leadoff, less than
or equal to 8 clocks subsequent accesses.
Primary Surface Support
o Linear access to full frame buffer in all pixel modes.
Offscreen Surface Support
o Greater than or equal to 1 Window of arbitrary size in pixel
formats different than primary (greater than or equal to 3 windows
recommended).
o CLUT8, RGB555, and RGB565 offscreen surfaces support in hardware.
o YUV 4:2:2 (YUY2) pixel format support in offscreen surfaces
support in hardware.
o Scaling of offscreen surfaces - interpolate in X and replicate in
Y in hardware (Bilinear interpolation in X and Y recommended).
o Clipping of offscreen surfaces in hardware.
Manageability
o VESA VBE/PM BIOS.
o DPMS Power Management Support.
Video Playback
* MPEG1 (hardware or software) with OM-1 compliance required.
* Direct access to frame buffer required with a resolution of 352 x 240
at 30 fps (or 352 x 288 at 25 fps) at 15 bits/pixel, unscaled, without
cropping.
* All codecs--hardware and/or software--must support a synchronized
audio/video stream with a resolution of 320 x 240, 15 bits/pixel, 30
frames/second, unscaled, dropping no more than 3% of the frames.
User Input
* Standard 101 key or greater IBM-style keyboard, with standard PS/2
style, DIN or Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, or keyboard which
delivers identical functionality utilizing key-combinations.
* Two-button or greater mouse or pointing device, PS/2 or USB style with
at least one additional communication port remaining free.
I/O
* 16550AF UART or equivalent serial controller with standard 9-pin or
25-pin asynchronous serial port, programmable up to 115.2K baud.
* Standard 25-pin parallel port with interrupt capability.
* 1 MIDI port with In, Out, and through, must have interrupt support for
input and FIFO transfer.
* IBM style analog or digital joystick or USB port.
Communications (if provided must meet the following) Controller
* V.34 fax/modem (28.8 Kbps).
Communications/Driver
* TAPI compliant inbound and outbound call control.
System Software
* Multimedia PC system software must offer binary compatibility with
Windows 3.11.
* System must offer binary compatibility with DOS version 6.0 or higher.
Minimum Full System Configuration
A full Multimedia PC Level 3 system requires the following elements and
components, all of which must meet the full functional specifications
outlined above:
CPU
RAM
Hard Drive
Floppy Drive
OM Drive
Audio
Graphics Performance
Video Playback
User Input
I/O
System Software
Minimum Upgrade Kit Configuration
A Multimedia PC Level 3 Upgrade Kit requires the following elements and
components, all of which must meet the full functional specifications
outlined above:
CD-ROM Drive
Audio
I/O
OR, CD-ROM drive, soundcard, interface software
(Providing system software with Upgrade Kits is optional).
Upgrade Components Upgrade components must meet the full functional
specifications outlined above.
* Sound Card.
* Must use MPC audio cable (see below).
* CD-ROM Drive.
* Must use MPC audio cable (see below).
* Video Playback Card.
* Speakers.
CD-ROM/Sound Card Audio Cable Standard for MPC Components
The following cable standards apply only to MPC components (CD-ROM drives or
sound cards sold separately). Full systems, notebooks, docking accessories
and upgrade kits are not required to observe the following specification.
A Multimedia PC CD-ROM drive component must include a minimum 24 inch cable
to connect the drive's analog audio output connector to an MPC sound card's
analog audio input connector.
The cable's CD-ROM drive interface must be a 2.54mm pitch female latched
connector with the following pin assignments: pin 1-left signal, pin
2-ground, pin 3-ground, pin 4-right signal. This is shown in Figure 1.
The cable's sound card interface is defined as a 2.54mm pitch shrouded
(latched or unlatched) or unshrouded connector. An optional reliable, cost
effective, user friendly solution to cabling the PC sound card component
directly to the CD-ROM drive component is also detailed in Figure 1. It
identifies a polarized (post removed) unshrouded, 2.54mm pitch post
unlatched connector mounted on the sound card which interfaces with an
identically polarized female receptacle.
If mating to a non-standard sound card connector, i.e., a connector not
having a 2.54mm pitch, use a short patch cable as illustrated in Figure 2.
The pin assignments on the sound card connectors must be complementary to
the CD-ROM audio cable connector.
The Connector Selection Guide identifies the AMP Inc. and Molex Inc. part
numbers, or their equivalent, including the optional polarized solution and
the short patch cable configuration. It is available for download in Adobe
Acrobat (PDF) format, or you can request it from mpcinfo@spa.org.
To download, you will need the Acrobat format reader, available for download
free from Adobe. Some browsers require you to set "Load to Disk" before
downloading.
* Download MPC Connector Selection Guide (24K in PDF format)
Definition of terms used in HD and CD-ROM performance sections:
Average Access Time
Average Access time is the average time required, after issuing a
single sector read command to a uniformly distributed random sector
number spanning the entire disc, until the selected sector data has
been transferred into system memory and good status has been returned.
This is measured at the system application level (through the OS and
the driver) as an average of at least 500 subsequent, randomly selected
sector reads and specified as a typical value (allowing plus or minus
10% margin on individual drive/system tests). The test assumes the use
of a new and undamaged disc containing at least 60 minutes of Mode 1
data. At the start of the test the disc must be spinning inside the
drive.
Interface overhead
The interface overhead is a measure of the protocol and command
processing overhead in issuing a request to the hard drive. This is
computed by measuring the service time of requests that access the
cache buffer for a variety of request sizes. A linear regression is
performed to estimate the amount of time required to transfer zero
sectors of data based on the service time of the other transfer sizes.
Cache Service Time
The cache service time is the data rate of accesses satisfied by the
drive's buffer cache. Since the interface rate may also depend on the
transfer rate of the associated host-bus adapter, the combination of
host-bus adapter and disk drive must meet the specified interface data
rate. The transfer rate is measured by generating I/O references of
various request sizes to the same disk blocks. The increase in service
time for each increase in request size is computed and corresponds to
the transfer rate.
Media data rate
The media data rate is the average data rate across the entire disc's
surface. This is measured by generating random I/O operations of
varying request sizes and computing the increase in service time for
each increase in request size.
Average latency
The average latency is often considered to be 1/2 the rotation period.
Instead of quoting 1/2 the rotation period, this parameter should be
taken directly from drive latency measurements so as to include any
missed disk revolutions and servo-alignment overheads. This is computed
by measuring the distribution of service times for various cache-miss
seek distances and determining the mean of the service time,
discounting the seek time.
Average seek
The average seek test is a measure of the drive's seek performance. It
represents the mean service time of random I/Os spread over the entire
surface of the disc minus the latency and overhead. The requests are
generated by producing a random number between 0 and the number of
sectors on the disc and accessing that sector.
Service time outliers
For the average seek test, the distribution of service times is
computed. The outlier performance stipulation limits the number of I/O
operations that are allowed to take an extraordinary amount of time to
complete. Such outliers are usually an indication of missed rotations
due to soft errors or servo alignment problems. In a multimedia capable
system, such outliers in the service time are detrimental.
