PC System Design Guide

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The PC System Design Guide (also known as the PC 97, PC 98, PC 99, or PC 2001 specification) is a series of hardware design requirements and recommendations for IBM PC compatible personal computers, compiled by Microsoft and Intel Corporation during 1997–2001. They were aimed to help manufacturers provide hardware that makes best use of the capabilities of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and to simplify setup and use of such computers.

Every part of a standard computer and the most common kinds of peripheral devices are defined with specific requirements. Systems and devices that meet the specification should be automatically recognized and configured by the operating system.

1 Versions
2 Color-coding scheme for connectors and ports
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Versions

Four versions of the PC System Design Guide were released. Within each version, a distinction was made between the requirements of a Consumer PC, Office PC and an Entertainment PC.

[edit] PC 97

Initial version.

Introduced color code for PS/2 keyboard (purple) and mouse (green) connectors (see below).

[edit] PC 98

Aimed at systems to be used with Windows 98 or Windows NT 5.0. Required:

200 MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology (or equivalent performance)
256 KB L2 cache
32 MB RAM (recommended: 64 MB of 66 MHz DRAM)
ACPI 1.0 (including power button behavior)
Fast BIOS power-up (limited RAM test, no floppy test, minimal startup display, etc.)
BIOS Y2K compliance
PXE preboot environment
...

[edit] PC 99

Required:

300 MHz CPU
64 MB RAM
USB
comprehensive color coding scheme for ports and connectors (see below)

Strongly discouraged:

non plug-and-play hardware
ISA slots

[edit] PC 2001

Final version.

[edit] Color-coding scheme for connectors and ports

The perhaps most end-user visible and lasting impact of PC 99 was that it introduced a color code for the various standard types of plugs and connectors used on PCs.^[1] As many of the connectors look very similar, particularly to a novice PC user, this made it far easier for people to connect peripherals to the correct ports on a PC. This color code was gradually adopted by almost all PC, motherboard and peripheral manufacturers.

Color		Function	Connector
Mouse and keyboard
	Green	PS/2 mouse / pointing device	6-pin mini-DIN
	Purple	PS/2 keyboard	6 pin mini-DIN
I/O ports
	Black	USB port	USB Type A
	Grey	Firewire / IEEE 1394	6 pin FireWire 400
	Burgundy	Parallel port	25 pin D
	Teal or turquoise	Serial port	9 pin D
Video card
	Blue	Analog monitor	15-pin VGA
	White	Digital monitor	DVI
	Yellow	S-Video	4 pin mini-DIN
	Yellow	Composite video	RCA jack
Sound card
	Pink	Analog microphone audio input.	3.5 mm TRS
	Light blue	Analog line level audio input.	3.5 mm TRS
	Lime green	Analog line level audio output for the main stereo signal (front speakers or headphones).	3.5 mm TRS
	Brown	Analog line level audio output for 'Right-to-left speaker'.	3.5 mm TRS
	Orange	speaker out / subwoofer	3.5 mm TRS
	Gold	Game port / MIDI	15 pin D

[edit] References

^ PC 99 System Design Guide, Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, 14 July 1999. Chapter 3: PC 99 basic requirements (pc99_c03.doc in ZIP file). Requirement 3.18.3: Systems use a color-coding scheme for connectors and ports.