New standards, new guidelines, new features
Over the past 15 years, computer hardware requirements have risen dramatically to accommodate increasingly complex software. Hardware has progressed from the 8086 processor and 64KB of RAM that DOS originally required, to the 80286 processor and 2MB of RAM that Windows 3.1 requires, to the 80386 processor and 16MB of RAM that Windows NT 3.51 required. Not surprisingly, NT 5.0 introduces even higher requirements for memory space, processor speed, and other system resources.
PC98 System Design Guide and Hardware Design Guide for Microsoft Windows NT Server (these guides are from both Microsoft and Intel) present design guidelines for hardware that runs NT 5.0. PC98 System Design Guide describes general requirements for building PCs, peripherals, and add-ons for NT Server 5.0, NT Workstation 5.0, and Windows 98. The Hardware Design Guide focuses on design requirements for systems that will run NT Server 5.0; its information is a subset of PC98 System Design Guide's definitions for next-generation systems. You can view and download both documents at http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/desguid/default.htm. (The Web site calls the Hardware Design Guide the Windows NT Server System Design Guide.)
Microsoft won't be able to gauge NT 5.0's performance until the release of beta 2, so no one will know NT 5.0's base system requirements until then. Nevertheless, a system that meets the design guides' requirements will offer the best performance with NT 5.0. This article provides an overview of the design guides' specifications for hardware that runs NT Server 5.0, including requirements for CPU speed, RAM space, and other system components. Use this information to prepare for the next NT release.
How Much Functionality Do You Need?
NT 5.0 will run on hardware that doesn't meet PC98 System Design Guide and Hardware Design Guide specifications; these specifications aren't the absolute minimum requirements for running the operating system (OS). Servers that don't meet these guidelines might not support all of NT 5.0's features or deliver optimal performance, but most will support the basic OS. If your system offers good performance under NT 4.0, then it will probably perform adequately under NT 5.0.
The Hardware Design Guide and PC98 System Design Guide recommendations for NT Server 5.0 specify hardware requirements for three system categories: basic server, small office/home office (SOHO) server, and enterprise server. A basic server is a general-purpose platform for use in small businesses or clustered enterprise environments. Basic servers meet baseline requirements for availability, reliability, scalability, and ease of use and administration. A SOHO server is a general-purpose platform tailored to users with limited administrative expertise. SOHO servers' performance focus is on file and print and client/server applications, and SOHO servers can double as workstations. An enterprise server is a system that serves as the foundation for a large organization. Administrators use enterprise servers for mission-critical tasks, such as data storage and email, so these systems require high availability.
Required RAM
Current data shows that, like NT Server 4.0, NT Server 5.0 runs on systems with 16MB of RAM, but if you want to do anything more than watch the logon screen, you need at least 32MB of RAM. The Hardware Design Guide calls for 64MB of RAM for basic servers, but for optimal basic server performance, you might need 128MB of RAM. The Hardware Design Guide requires 128MB of RAM for SOHO servers (256MB of RAM for multiprocessor SOHO systems) and 2GB of RAM for enterprise servers. The absolute minimum RAM requirement for NT Server 5.0 is currently 16MB, but when the final version comes out, Microsoft might set the minimum RAM to 24MB.
The Hardware Design Guide also covers servers' minimum capabilities for RAM expansion. A basic server must allow for at least 512MB of Error-Correcting Code (ECC) RAM, or 256MB per CPU for multiprocessor systems. The requirement that servers have ECC RAM is important for high-availability systems, because the systems' memory and cache must detect and correct for common error conditions. For example, ECC RAM must detect 2-bit word errors and correct single-bit word errors. The Hardware Design Guide recommends but doesn't require that servers detect the failure of one DRAM device (such as a SIMM or DIMM) via a 4-bit or 8-bit word error.
Because of recent advances in chip densities, most enterprise-application servers on the market today hold 2GB or 4GB of RAM. Some servers, such as Digital Equipment's Alpha servers, hold as much as 8GB of RAM, and Sequent and Unisys have proposed systems with 32GB of RAM. So, if you buy a new machine, meeting the RAM requirement won't be a problem. If your organization has only a handful of servers, you can upgrade your servers' RAM without creating a serious financial burden, because memory costs about $2 per MB right now. However, large IS departments that want to migrate to NT 5.0 must seriously consider the cost of RAM upgrades. Distributed organizations with thousands of servers might have to pay as much as $1 million to upgrade their servers' RAM (32MB * $2 per MB * 15,000 servers = $960,000). ECC, Enhanced Data Output (EDO), and standard RAM cost about the same amount (Synchronous DRAM--SDRAM--costs slightly more), so if you're buying new RAM, you might as well buy ECC RAM.
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