System Requirements

A network interface card (NIC or Ethernet) is required for software-based node-locked and floating licenses.

The following table describes the supported platforms and operating systems for IDL.


Platform	Vendor	Hardware	Operating System	Supported Versions
Windows	Microsoft	Intel/AMD x86 32-bit	Windows	XP, Vista
Windows	Microsoft	Intel/AMD x86_64 64-bit	Windows	XP, Vista
Macintosh^a	Apple	PowerMac G4, G5 32-bit	OS X	10.4, 10.5
Macintosh^a	Apple	Intel Core Duo 32-bit	OS X	10.4^b, 10.5
UNIX^a,d	SUN	SPARC 32-bit	Solaris	10
	SUN	SPARC 64-bit	Solaris	10
	various	Intel/AMD x86 32-bit	Linux^c	Kernel version 2.6.9 glibc version 2.3.4 gtk2 version 2.4.13
	various	Intel/AMD x86_64 64-bit	Linux^{c, e}	Kernel version 2.6.9 glibc version 2.3.4 gtk2 version 2.4.13

^aFor UNIX and Mac OS X, the supported versions indicate that IDL was either built on (the lowest version listed) or tested on that version. You can install and run IDL on other versions that are binary compatible with those listed.

^bFor Mac OS X on Intel-based computers, version 10.4.8 or later and the X11 Update version 1.1.2 (November 2006) are required.

^c If your version of Linux is compatible with the listed kernel and glibc versions, you should be able to install and run IDL.

^d The IDL Workbench requires the GTK+ library version 2.4 or later. Printing functionality in the Workbench requires GTK+ library version 2.10 or later. If GTK+ version 2.4 or later is not available, IDL will only run in console mode.

e IDL may not install correctly on a pure 64-bit Linux system. If installation fails, install your platform's 32-bit compatibility libraries.

32-bit and 64-bit Versions

On UNIX platforms that provide 64-bit support, you can run IDL as either a 32-bit or a 64-bit application. When both versions are installed, the 64-bit version is the default. You can run the 32-bit version by specifying the -32 switch at the command line, as follows:

Under Microsoft Windows, the 32-bit and 64-bit versions are started via separate Start menu entries.

Graphics Hardware

Some IDL features take advantage of graphics hardware that supports the OpenGL 2.0 interface to improve rendering performance, if such hardware is present. Your video card should support OpenGL 2.0 or higher to take advantage of the graphics features in IDL.

Platform Support Questions and Answers

The ITT Visual Information Solutions Technical Support department maintains a list of common platform and operating system support questions and answers. Please see Tech Tip 3635 on the ITT Visual Information Solutions Web site for additional information.

Software Requirements

Feature Support by Operating System

IDL technologies not listed in this table are assumed to work on all supported platforms.

Platform	Software Requirements
Windows	Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
Macintosh	Apple X11 X-Windows manager


Feature	Windows		OS X	Linux		Solaris
Feature	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit
ActiveX: WIDGET_ACTIVEX (IDLcomActiveX object)	·
COM Object –Export (via Export Bridge Assistant)	·
COM Object –Import (IDLcomIDispatch object)	·
DataMiner	·			·^a		·
DICOM Network Services	·		·^b	·		·
DICOM Read/Write (IDLffDicomEx object)	·		·^b	·		·
DICOM Read/Write (IDLffDicom object)	·		·	·	·	·	·
DXF file format (IDLffDXF object)	·			·		·
IDL Analyst (IMSL Numerical Library)	·		·	·	·	·	·
MrSID (IDLffMrSID)	·
Flexible single-user license, student license	·	·	·	·	·
Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)			·	·	·	·	·
tty-based interface			·	·	·	·	·

^bDICOM Network Services and DICOM Read/Write functionality are supported with the PowerPC Macintosh IDL binary version, but not with the Intel-based Macintosh binary version.