3.  HARDWARE/SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

SHIMS is an application that uses Paradox 4.5 for DOS from Borland Inc.  Therefore,
Paradox 4.5 for DOS must be installed on any computer that uses SHIMS.  The minimum
requirement to run Paradox 4.5 for DOS is 2 Megabytes of memory, an 80386 or faster
processor, EGA or VGA color graphics, 16 MB of free hard disk space, and a printer. SHIMS
will run better on systems that have an 80486 or faster processor, a larger hard disk, and a
laser printer.

In order to minimize the size of the backup and WFO export files, SHIMS uses PKZIP and
PKUNZIP data compression programs from PKWARE INC.  The latest version of these
programs should be available to all National Weather Service offices.  Using the latest version
of PKZIP and PKUNZIP will speed up the backup and exporting processes considerably (see
step d. of the upgrade installation steps described in Section 4).  These two programs must be
accessible on the SHIMS computers.