SunPCi User's Guide

Chapter 1 What Is SunPCi?

SunPCi™ software and hardware provide a complete PC hardware environment on your PCI-based SPARC™ workstation or server running the Solaris operating environment. With the SunPCi product, you can run Windows 95 or Windows NT applications on your workstation, alongside your Solaris applications.

SunPCi Features

The following list describes some of the PC features that the SunPCi product brings to your Solaris desktop:

An Intel-compatible PC on your Solaris desktop

With the SunPCi card installed in your workstation or server, SunPCi contains an Intel-compatible PC processor on the board.

High-resolution VGA display for your Microsoft Windows applications

SunPCi software includes two Windows super-VGA display drivers. One displays the Windows desktop in an X window on your screen; the other displays on an external VGA monitor. You can choose to install either option.

Your familiar PC peripherals

The SunPCi product provides Microsoft Mouse and IBM PC keyboard emulation, plus access to external peripherals such as printers and modems. The SunPCi card and optional add-on backplate contain the physical connections for PC peripheral devices.

Access to network services, files, and printers

The SunPCi product enables you to connect to your Ethernet network. It also allows you to access Solaris files and printers on the network through the physical connections on the accelerator card and backplate.

The software package includes the Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 operating system. You must purchase Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and your Windows applications separately.

From the PC User's Perspective

From the perspective of a PC user, SunPCi software includes the following PC features:

Emulated hard drives, which function like local PC hard drives
Extended drives, similar to networked drives on a PC
IBM PC and PC keyboard emulation
Access to serial, parallel, and USB peripherals, such as printers, scanners, digital cameras, and so on
64 Mbytes of on-board memory (standard), plus a second slot for additional memory (64 and 128 Mbyte options are available; you can install two 128 MByte modules for a maximum 256 MBytes)
Access to PC-based networks, including file and print servers
Ability to use an optional VGA monitor

From the Workstation User's Perspective

From the perspective of a SPARC Solaris workstation user, SunPCi software provides advantages, such as:

Reliable access to thousands of PC applications, including custom internal applications that your company relies on daily

Ability to display super-VGA graphics with 24-bit color

Ability to share network resources between the PC and Solaris environments, such as printers and files

Ability to copy and paste text between OpenDOS or Windows and OpenWindows/CDE applications

Access to PC-based networks, including Novell NetWare file and print servers

Getting Help for SunPCi Software

You can turn to the following additional sources for help with SunPCi software and with Windows 95 and Windows NT:

Solaris online manual pages
DOS-related manual pages
Customer Support

The following sections explain these sources.

Solaris Online Manual Pages

You may occasionally have questions regarding the Solaris operating system itself. For such information, try using the Solaris online manual pages (also called man pages).

To use Solaris online manual pages, perform the following procedure:

Type the word man, followed by the name of the command in which you are interested, and then press Return.

For example, to get help on the sunpci command, type the following command and then press Return:
```
% man sunpci
```

The system responds Reformatting page... wait, and then displays a section of the manual page in the command window. To scroll through the manual page, press any key. To exit the manual page, press Control-C.

For information on how to add the SunPCi man page directory to your MANPATH environment variable, refer to your Solaris documentation.

Getting Help for Windows 95 or Windows NT

To get help for Windows 95 or Windows NT while you are working in the SunPCi window and Microsoft Windows is running, press F1 or select Help from the Help menu in any window. This brings up the Contents window for Windows 95 or Windows NT help.

Note –

Windows 95/NT help does not contain help for the SunPCi application.

How to Proceed

To get started with the SunPCi software installation, proceed to Chapter 2. To install the SunPCi software, proceed to Chapter 3, Starting SunPCi Software for the First Time. Once you have installed and configured the SunPCi software, you can continue through Chapter 3, Starting SunPCi Software for the First Time to install Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Service Pack 4.

Chapter 4, Configuring Peripheral Devices contains information on how to install and configure peripheral devices with SunPCi.