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The Multimedia PC, or MPC, was a recommended configuration for a PC with a CD-ROM drive. Any PC with the required standards could be called an "MPC". The standard was set by the "Multimedia PC Marketing Council", which was a working group of the Software Publishers Association . It comprised companies including Microsoft, Creative Labs, Dell, Gateway, and Fujitsu.CD-ROM drives were just coming to market in 1990, and it was difficult to concisely communicate to a consumer all the hardware requirements for using "multimedia software", which mostly meant "displaying video on a PC via a CD-ROM drive". The MPC standard was supposed to communicate this concisely, so a consumer buying hardware or software could simply look for the MPC logo and be assured of compatibility.
The MPC program was never a success and it is rare today to see software or hardware labeled with the term "MPC". As the standardized term failed to catch on, and as the Software Publishers Association turned away from consumer software in the late 1990s, interest in the MPC standard vanished. The problem of software labeling continues, especially in the field of computer games, where a plethora of 3D video cards has been manufactured with an extremely wide range of display capabilities, and no common industry labeling standard to let consumers know whether their card is good enough to let them play a particular game.
The first MPC minimum standard, set in 1990, was:
- 16MHz 386SX CPU
- 2MB RAM
- 30MB hard disk
- 256-color, 640 x 480 VGA video card
- 1x CD-ROM drive using no more than 40% of CPU to read, with < 1 second seek time
- Sound card outputting 22KHz, 8-bit sound; and inputting 11KHz, 8-bit sound
- Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, or Windows 3.1
In 1993, an MPC Level 2 minimum standard was announced:
- 25MHz 486SX CPU
- 4MB RAM
- 160MB hard disk
- 16-bit color, 640 x 480 VGA video card
- 2X CD-ROM drive using no more than 40% of CPU to read at 1x, with < 400ms seek time
- Sound card outputting 44KHz, 16-bit sound
- Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, or Windows 3.1
In 1996, MPC Level 3 was announced:
- 75MHz Pentium CPU
- 8MB RAM
- 540MB hard disk
- Video system that can show 352 x 240 at 30 frames per second, 15-bit color
- MPEG-1 hardware or software video playback
- 4x CD-ROM drive using no more than 40% of CPU to read, with < 250ms seek time
- Sound card outputting 44KHz, 16-bit sound
- Windows 3.11
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