IBM Corp also duly announced the 2.1 release of OS/2 yesterday, describing it as an enhanced OS/2 32-bit operating system with support for Windows 3.1 applications, a new 32-bit graphics engine, 256-colour XGA and Super Video Graphics Adaptor device drivers, support for high-speed printers and some CD-ROM drives. Multimedia Presentation Manager/2 is included and adds enhanced audio, basic image and software motion video playback capabilities. The Developer’s Toolkit for OS/2 2.1 contains bindings, tools, sample programs and documentation, and there is also a Multimedia Presentation Manager Toolkit/2. All are out on June 14. IBM claims that it runs Windows 3.1 standard-mode applications, including multimedia ones, and major enhanced-mode applications; not requiring a VxD device driver, with performance comparable to that of native Windows 3.1. Users can start OS/2 and MS-DOS applications from within a Windows application. Performance of Dynam ic Data Exchange is improved, and Level 2.5 Adobe Type Manager fonts and TrueType fonts are included. OS/2 2.1 provides support for Wind ows applications with Object Link ing and Embedding capabilities if they run in the same WIN-OS/2 sess ion. It costs $250, $200 as an upgrade, and the toolkit is $140.
