Preface

This document provides information about general IA hardware requirements and the peripherals and system platforms that are supported in Solaris 8 x86 Platform Edition.

It documents cumulative changes since the release of Solaris 8 x86 Platform Edition, including those documented in the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 6/00 Hardware Compatibility List, the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 10/00 Hardware Compatibility List, the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 1/01 Hardware Compatibility List, the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 4/01 Hardware Compatibility List, and the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 7/01 Hardware Compatibility List.

Note - In this document the term "IA" refers to the x86 32-bit processor architecture, which includes the Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium II Xeon, Celeron, Pentium III, Pentium III Xeon, and Pentium 4 processors and compatible microprocessor chips made by AMD.

Note - System platforms listed in this document are tested "as-shipped" by the hardware manufacturers, but due to the nature of this industry, there might be unexpected and unannounced changes.

Before a system can be certified, every controller (disk, network, and video) in the system must be certified. This means that each controller runs on an existing Solaris driver or on a driver that has been certified by Sun. All Sun certified controllers are listed in Chapter 3, Supported Devices and Chapter 4, Certified Controllers Supported by Third-Party Drivers.

It is common practice for hardware vendors to release variants of a particular hardware design under a single marketing name. In some cases, not all variants will work with the current Solaris device driver. Check the "Device Reference Pages" in the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) Device Configuration Guide to see if they provide additional information about specific hardware versions supported by the current Solaris device driver.

How This Document Is Organized

This document is divided into four chapters and one appendix:

• Chapter 1, General Requirements lists the x86 32-bit processor architecture (IA) hardware requirements for installing the Solaris 8 operating environment.

• Chapter 2, System Platforms lists the platforms supported in the Solaris 8 x86 Platform Edition product. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of IA based systems that can run Solaris 8 software. All peripherals listed in Chapter 3, Supported Devices have not been tested in all combinations on all of these platforms.

• Chapter 3, Supported Devices lists the peripherals supported by drivers included on the Solaris CD. Support for these drivers is provided by Sun.

• Chapter 4, Certified Controllers Supported by Third-Party Drivers lists controllers developed by independent hardware vendors (IHVs). Contact the IHV directly to get support for these controllers, which have been certified using a third-party driver.

• Appendix A, PXE Network Boot describes how to set up and use the PXE network boot feature.

Related Books

For specific hardware configuration information necessary to install and run the Solaris environment on your particular hardware, see the Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) Device Configuration Guide.

Solaris Certification Programs

For information about the Solaris hardware certification programs, see http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/hcts.

Because certification testing is an ongoing process, updated Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCLs) are produced between releases. HCLs are available at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl.

Driver-Related Patches

For information about driver-related patches that are currently available for Solaris x86 Platform Edition, see http://www.sun.com/io/released-patches.html. For a list of upcoming driver-related patches, see http://www.sun.com/io/upcoming-patches.html.

HCL Feedback

To supply technical feedback about this book, send email to x86-certify@cypress.west.sun.com.

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.com Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

The Solaris 8 (x86 Platform Edition) 10/01 Hardware Compatibility List and other versions of this book are updated frequently at the Solaris Developer Connection web site. The URL is http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl.