| — Be sure the next PC or motherboard you buy has a BIOS
that supports Plug and Play. This may take some snooping,
because PnP may not be widely advertised by all vendors. — Look for a BIOS that's stored in flash ROM, not mask ROM. It will be easier to upgrade in the future. — Upgrade to a fully integrated PnP operating system as soon as it's available. If your computer isn't fast enough or doesn't have enough memory, Intel's retrofit for MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 is a good interim solution. — PnP cards and peripherals will be scarce for a while, but they're worth having if you can wait. Plan on gradually replacing your legacy cards. — Watch for software vendors to announce upgrades to applications that can benefit by responding to dynamic run-time events. — Don't buy a notebook docking station that doesn't support PnP. Copyright 1994-1998 BYTE |