Parallels Desktop for Mac is a powerful, easy-to-use virtualization software for Intel®-based Macs and is designed to work with a wide range of operation systems. Review the software and hardware requirements necessary for installing Parallels Desktop for Mac below.
| Software Requirements | |
|---|---|
| Primary Operating System |
Mac OS® X Tiger 10.4 or higher running on an Intel® Mac. |
| Hardware Requirements | |
|---|---|
| Mac Computer | Support for any 32- or 64-bit Intel®-based Mac:
|
| Processors | Support for any 32- or 64-bit any Intel® Core Duo processor featured in new Intel® Macs:
Includes full support for Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) |
| Memory Requirements | 512 MB minimum available memory (1 GB recommended). Support for any memory configuration (up to 16 GB), without modifying your host system |
| Disk Space | Software Installation – 70 MB of available hard drive space for Parallels Desktop for Mac installation. (Does not include hard drive space for guest virtual machine.) Virtual Machine Installation – Hard drive space allocation for virtual machines is dependent upon the guest operating system. 15 GB of available hard drive space is recommended per virtual machine for Windows and Linux |
| CD-ROM | CD-ROM drive for installation (if applicable) |
| Networking | Internet connection is required to receive online Parallels Desktop for Mac product updates |
| Display |
16-bit or 32-bit display adapter recommended |
| Hardware Requirements | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Virtualized Processor of the Host computer |
| Motherboard | Generic motherboard compatible with Intel i815 chipset |
| Memory | Up to 1500 MB RAM available for guest virtual machines |
| Keyboard | 104-key Windows enhanced keyboard |
| Mouse | PS/2 wheel mouse |
| Display | VGA and SVGA with VESA 3.0 support 3D Graphics Support |
| IDE Drives | Up to 4 IDE Devices; CD/DVD-ROM Drives, Virtual Hard drives or any combination of the two. Virtual Hard Drive from 20 MB up to 120 GB each |
| Floppy Drives | 1.44 Floppy drive mapped to FDD image file |
| CD Drives | CD/DVD-ROM drives mapped to physical drive or ISO image file Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, play audio CDs, and read data from copy-protected CDs and DVDs. |
| Sound Card | AC'97-compatible sound card. Sound recording is supported |
| Serial Ports | Up to four Serial (COM) Port mapped to a socket or to an output file |
| Parallels Ports | Up to three bi-directional parallel (LPT) ports mapped to output file |
| Ethernet© Cards | Up to 5 Virtual NIC’-s Ethernet virtual network card compatible with RTL8029 bridged to Apple Ethernet or Apple Airport adapter, connected to host-only or shared networking |
| USB Ports | USB 2.0 Support; 8 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 1.1 ports |
