IBM OS 2

IBM's goal is to provide a more responsive OS/2 that is simpler and more intuitive to use, and provides easy connectivity. To achieve that end, OS/2 Warp 4 addresses three major issues:

► Ease of use - changes to the Workplace Shell interface

► Voice Navigation and Dictation

► Ease of connecting to whatever networked environment you wish

IBM OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 (PS/2)" line of second-generation personal computers. OS/2 is no longer marketed by IBM, and IBM standard support for OS/2 was discontinued on 31 December 2006.

CPU Monitor offers a selection of performance and analysis tools for OS/2 users. Using Presentation Manager graphics, CPU Monitor displays real-time information for estimated CPU utilization, OS/2 process relationships, and more. CPU Monitor enables you to dynamically suspend and resume execution for individual threads and helps you detect and stop runaway, invisible, and background programs.

The OS/2 WarpCenter provides a CPU monitor utility that shows the system activity and a disk space monitor program that shows the amount of disk space available in all partitions. In addition, there are many other operating system utilities that you can use to check your system integrity if you perceive a performance degradation has occurred. They are as follows.

► CHKDSK - disk integrity checking

► HDMON - hard disk monitoring

► PROFILER - file repairing

► PSTAT - process monitoring

► RMVIEW - resource allocation monitoring

► SYSLEVEL - operating system and corrective service level analyzing

► TRACE - events tracing

Your system performance depends largely on how OS/2 Warp 4 and the underlying hardware work together. The 32-bit OS/2 Warp 4 operating system exploits the Intel 32-bit X-86 architecture through the flat memory model, native protected mode and virtual 8086 mode though paging and multiple virtual DOS machine sessions. The flat memory model allows for a very large (4 GB) single address space referred to as flat memory. Call/return times are reduced by eliminating the need to switch segments manifested in a typical 16-bit application.

OS/2 Warp 4 can be installed over the following systems.

► OS/2 1.3

► OS/2 2.0 and 2.1

► OS/2 for Windows

► OS/2 for Windows plus Service Pak

► DOS 3.1 or greater with Windows 3.1, 3.11

► DOS 3.1 or greater with Windows for Workgroups 3.10 or 3.11

► OS/2 Warp V3.0

► OS/2 Warp with WIN-OS/2 V3.0

► OS/2 Warp Connect V3.0

► OS/2 Warp Connect with WIN-OS/2 V3.0

► over itself

► in a totally empty partition