Manifold System Release 7x Hardware and Software Requirements

Hardware and software requirements vary considerably depending on the tasks undertaken.

Minimum Configuration

The minimum configuration allows installation of Release 7x and work with small components.  It is a limited configuration that is not recommended for anything other than small drawings.

• 200Mhz Pentium (500Mhz PIII or greater recommended) PC compatible.
• 256MB RAM (1 GB or greater recommended)
• 800 x 600 SVGA Display (1280 x 1024 or greater recommended)
• DVD ROM
• 250 MB hard disk free space (gigabytes of free space recommended)
• Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista (Windows 95 is not supported by 7x)
• Internet Explorer 6 or most recent IE version plus most recent service pack.
• Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0
• IIS 5.1 or greater to operate Manifold IMS.

Windows Me or Windows 98 might not be supported by any service packs or releases after 7x or as a result of Microsoft updates.

Manifold is not supported for use in Macintosh or any other non-native PC environment using Windows emulators.  It is only supported in true PC compatibles with direct access to the PC hardware not mediated by middleware such as virtual machine emulators, remote consoles, timesharing console servers, attempts to allow "floating" use of Manifold installed on one machine to be used by a variety of client machines and the like.  If you want to use floating licenses, acquire a Manifold License Server license and use that.

Manifold IMS (Internet Map Server)  - Manifold IMS is published for use in Windows Vista, 2003, XP or 2000 systems that have Internet Information Server (excludes XP "home" edition, which does not have IIS and cannot function as a web server). The map server has been observed to work using the personal Internet server in Windows 98, and Me; however, these operating systems are not supported for use with the Manifold map server. Performance with 98 or Me (if it works at all) will be greatly reduced as compared to Vista, 2003, XP or 2000.  Although IMS can work in Windows systems with non-IIS HTTP servers that are capable of instantiating and using a COM object, only IIS is supported by tech support for developer support incidents. Please note that Manifold System Personal Edition does not include IMS.  Only Manifold System Professional Edition and higher editions include IMS.

Note: It is quite likely that future editions of Manifold after 7x will not support 98 or Me.  Manifold.net strongly advises migration of antique Windows editions to Windows XP, 2003 or Vista.  At some point, even Windows 2000 may no longer be supported by Microsoft or by Manifold.

64-bit Requirements

Only a 64-bit Manifold edition can run in 64-bit mode on 64-bit x64 processors running 64-bit Windows editions. Manifold x64 is not supported for Itanium or other non-x64 bit architectures. To run Manifold in 64-bit mode you must do the following:

• Use an x64 processor, such as AMD Athlon64x2 or Intel EM64T.
• Use an x64 edition of Windows, such as Windows XP x64 or Windows Server 2003 x64.
• Install the x64 edition of .NET Framework 2.0.
• Install an x64 edition of Manifold.
• Activate the x64 edition of Manifold using a 64-bit Manifold serial number.

If you do not know whether your computer system fulfills the above requirements, the easiest way to check is to launch the Windows Control Panel - System applet: the Windows version in use and processor in use will be shown in the applet's General tab.  If the applet shows a 64-bit, x64 version of Windows, you know you have a 64-bit processor as well because Windows x64 will not install on non-x64 processors.   If you have an x64 version of Windows installed you can then proceed to install an x64 .NET Framework 2.0 and x64 Manifold.

Recommended Hardware Configurations

Some suggestions when assembling a system:

• Go 64-bit and run Windows XP x64.  Quad core 64-bit processors now cost about the same as dual-core 64-bit.  Vista is a very cool new operating system that is perfectly supported by Manifold, but XP x64 is faster. 
• When working with images, we suggest at least a dual-core processor 2 GB of RAM running Windows XP, Vista or XP x64. This is excessive for small images but necessary for mid-sized images. Images are computationally intensive.
• A fast graphics card must be installed when performing 3D rendering in terrain windows. NVIDIA-based cards currently selling for under $50 will provide smooth motion even with large terrains. We like cards using NVIDIA graphics processors.  Download the latest drivers from the NVIDIA site for maximum performance.  
• If you can afford it, get an NVIDIA CUDA-capable card. Modern NVIDIA graphics cards use massively parallel architectures to provide supercomputer speed for rendering.  CUDA is an NVIDIA technology that enables applications to upload general computing tasks into those massively parallel processing arrays for fast computation.  If Manifold announces supports for CUDA in the future, you might be able to take advantage of that technology.  If not, you will at least have a first-rate graphics card.
• For very large tasks, such as intensive web server applications using IMS, consider investing in a dual socket,  quad processor machine.  This gives you eight cores.  Various processes within Manifold can use multiple processors, and the additional processors will offload other processes that would otherwise rob some processor performance from Manifold.
• We suggest Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.
• RAM is very inexpensive and can be used effectively with x64 Windows.  Get 4GB or more.
• Large disk drives are now cheap.  Get lots of space to hold the maps and images you will download for free via Internet (get DSL or a cable modem too so you can download lots of free data).  Manifold reads over 80 formats so you will find a wealth of free GIS data on the web you can use.  

Windows Configuration Requirements

Getting ready for installation consists mostly of making sure your Windows system has been updated to the latest spec.

1. Review the hardware requirements above to make sure you have adequate room on your hard disk, etc. 

2. Installation of Manifold System Release 7x Professional edition requires that your Windows system be updated to the latest Microsoft spec using the latest Microsoft Service Packs or other updates.   We strongly recommend Windows Vista, 2003, XP or Windows 2000.

3. You must install .NET Framework 2.0 Manifold depends upon the .NET Framework for necessary Windows routines, including XML parsing. 

4. You must install Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or more recent because it is required by the .NET Framework.   You may use whatever browser you like (AOL Netscape, Opera, whatever) as your default browser; however, an IE installation is required.  

5. Other required Microsoft updates to your Windows system are provided on the Manifold DVD. 

Limitations when using Windows 98 or Me

Although Manifold may be used on Microsoft Windows 98 or Me, there are several key limitations in this operating system. 

To avoid limitations, use Windows Vista, 2003, XP or 2000.  Windows XP or more recent is strongly recommended.

Windows 9x Crashes  - Manifold uses standard Windows virtual memory management facilities when working with components too large to fit into available RAM. Windows 9x (Windows  98 and Me) memory management facilities are unreliable for large projects and will crash when Windows 2003, Windows XP or Windows 2000 will not. In addition, printing through Windows 9x  is less reliable because these systems do such a poor job of memory management that internal bugs in printer drivers are more likely to surface. These are not Manifold crashes but are operating system crashes. When working with large projects, use Windows 2000 or greater, preferably XP or more recent.

Limited Support- The Manifold team strongly recommends Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 2003 or Windows XP. We believe that Windows 98 and Me were outstanding products for their time but are now antiques.  In general would like to make sure our product works the same in Win 98/Me as they do with Vista, 2003, XP or 2000; however, since newer Windows editions provide more capability than 98/Me, we cannot in our product add capability that 98/Me do not have. Our support plan for 98/Me is limited to verifying that our code conforms to the Microsoft standards and that any errata are a result of limitations in Windows 98 or Windows Me.

Note: It is quite likely that future editions of Manifold after 7x will not support 2000, 98 or Me.  Manifold.net strongly advises migration of older Windows editions to Windows Vista, XP or 2003.  At some point, even Windows 2000 may no longer be supported by Microsoft or by Manifold.

Printer Limitations - Manifold uses standard Windows facilities to print to printers. Manifold passes the print job to Windows, which then calls the printer driver. There is no contact between Manifold and the printer driver at all, so that any Manifold print job passed by Windows to the printer driver is guaranteed "legal" since it arrives from Windows using internal Windows system routines. Experience with previous editions of Manifold showed that some printer drivers do not fully support the requirements of a printer driver documented by Microsoft, so that some "legal" but complex jobs passed by Windows to the printer would crash the driver.

Release 7x therefore uses a very simple set of Windows calls in an attempt to avoid triggering bugs in printer drivers provided by the printer manufacturer.  If you experience difficulty printing, make sure to check the printer manufacturer's web site to see if there are more recent drivers available for your use, since the difficulty may arise from a bug in the printer driver that has since been fixed. Note that Manifold is sold for use with printers that fully support Windows requirements for printer drivers.

Memory Requirements for Large Projects - Manifold is designed for an era where RAM memory is cheap and personnel costs are high. Undo and may other user-friendly features require a lot of memory to implement. For best performance we recommend installing lots of RAM and having plenty of free disk space for temporary files.  RAM is so cheap in modern times it is "penny wise and pound foolish" not to load up your system with the maximum amount of RAM it can hold. This will help all your work go faster and not just Manifold.