C–1
C
Plug and Play Systems
Overview
This appendix describes briefly the Plug and Play design philosophy that is
based on a set of open specifications for PC architecture. The ultimate goal of
Plug and Play is to design enough intelligence into the PC to handle installation
and configuration tasks without user intervention.
Plug and Play Characteristics
A Plug and Play system contains the following unique characteristics:
•
Installing hardware devices is simple, fail-safe, and automatic—plug in the
device, turn on the system, and it works.
•
Devices can be inserted, removed, and connected or disconnected from a
docking station or network without restarting the system or changing
configuration parameters.
•
The system determines the optimal configuration, and applications
automatically adjust to take full advantage of the new configuration. There
is no need to modify adapter jumper settings or modify operating system
configuration files.
•
Ease of use for PCs is enhanced and support costs are substantially lower.
