Hardware requirements

Computer

You will need a PC-compatible computer capable of running Windows NT or 2000. You will need enough ISA or PCI slots to install your digital I/O cards (see below). For additional functions in Whisker Multimedia Edition, you may also need extra serial ports, or space for extra serial cards (for touchscreen input), sound cards (for sound output) and a multi-monitor card (for dedicated experimental displays).

We first used Whisker on an AMD K6-2/450 system with 128 Mb RAM and Windows NT4 (costing about £510 in September 1999). That was more than fast enough for the digital I/O features of Whisker. Multimedia users may benefit from faster computers, however, as this improves drawing speed.

Uninterruptible power supply

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is important to protect your system against mains power failure, especially if you are using potentially dangerous devices such as intravenous infusion pumps; in this situation, we consider a UPS essential. Using an UPS is also good practice because it prevents data loss.

Digital input/output devices

Digital I/O cards currently supported are

Multiple monitors

(Multimedia Edition only)

If you wish to have more than one video output, then extra monitor cards will be required. Multiple monitor cards are provided by a number of manufacturers, such as Matrox.

Touchscreens

(Multimedia Edition only)

Touchscreen compatibility is provided through the Universal Pointing Device Driver by Touch-base Ltd. Any touchscreen supported by the UPDD is supported by Whisker.

For each touchscreen, a serial port is required. Multiple serial cards are available from a variety of sources.

Sound devices

(Multimedia Edition only)

Sound is supplied by using standard PC sound cards. Each card can be used as a single stereo sound outputs, or a pair of mono outputs.