Platform Support for ENVI 6.0 and IDL 9.0

This help article lists the supported platforms and features for ENVI 6.0 and IDL 9.0.

See the following sections:

• ENVI 6.0 Platform Support
• ENVI 6.0 Feature Support
• IDL 9.0 Platform Support
• IDL 9.0 Feature Support

ENVI 6.0 Platform Support

ENVI has the following system requirements:

• Operating systems:
  • Windows 10 and 11 (Intel/AMD 64-bit)
  • macOS 12 and 13 (Intel 64-bit and M-series*)
  • Linux (Intel/AMD 64-bit, kernel 4.18.0 or higher and glibc 2.28 or higher)
• Disk space: Approximately 4 GB for installation
• Memory (RAM): Minimum of 8 GB
• Number of processing cores: Minimum of 2, recommended 4 or more
• Graphics card: Minimum of 1 GB RAM and support for Open GL 2.0 or later

* The Rosetta 2 emulator is required to run Intel-based ENVI on M-series Macs.

An X-Windows manager is required for macOS. ENVI was tested using XQuartz 2.8.5 on an M1 chipset.

ENVI was tested with ArcGIS Pro version 3.0.

Details

The best hardware configuration for ENVI will depend on the type of processing that is anticipated. Consider the following items when selecting a system configuration for use with ENVI.

Disk Space

The amount of hard-drive space that is needed for ENVI depends on the specific workflows and data that will be used. Our technical support group uses systems with 1 TB of disk space, which is more than adequate for day-to-day use. However, this would not address the needs of a production facility that processes large amounts of data on a daily basis.

A solid-state drive (SSD) is highly recommended for optimal performance.

Memory (RAM)

Most image display and processing capabilities in ENVI and IDL have been designed to work with minimal amounts of system RAM. Having a lot of RAM can help to avoid occasional memory allocation problems, especially with large datasets. Tests have shown that 8 GB of RAM is adequate for most tasks run using the latest versions of ENVI and IDL. However, if you anticipate working with very large datasets, or if you are building custom applications with ENVI+IDL code, then you may consider adding more RAM to your system.

Graphics Card

For optimal performance, your graphics card should have a minimum of 1 GB RAM and should support OpenGL 2.0 or later. Also be sure to install the latest drivers for your graphics card. If you anticipate implementing sophisticated graphical displays while building custom applications in ENVI+IDL—or if you expect to work with large datasets—then the more RAM the better.

Processors and Cores

ENVI only supports CPUs with the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) instruction set. In general, any CPU after 2011 will contain this instruction set.

ENVI 6.0 Feature Support

The following table indicates which platforms support the corresponding feature. ENVI features not listed in this table are assumed to work on all supported platforms.

Feature	Windows 64-bit	Mac 64-bit	Linux 64-bit
Chip to PowerPoint	•
Chip and Export to Geospatial PDF	•		•
Download Web Data	•
ENVIView::ChipToVideo	•		•
FLAASH a	•		•
Full Motion Video	•		•
Generate Point Clouds and DSM by Dense Image Matching d	•
LiDAR c	•		•
NITF/NSIF Module	•		•
Read ECW files	•
Read MrSID files	•		•
Read OGC GeoPackage files	•
Reference Map Link	•
Rigorous Orthorectification b	•
RPC Orthorectification Using DSM from Dense Image Matching b	•
THOR Tools	•
VideoToRasterSeries Task	•		•

^a FLAASH is included with the Atmospheric Correction Module, which requires a separate license. The QUick Atmospheric Correction (QUAC) tool is also included with the module and runs on all platforms that ENVI supports.

b Requires a separate license for the ENVI Photogrammetry Module.

c Supported through the ENVI API only. The ENVI LiDAR user interface is not available on Linux.

IDL 9.0 Platform Support

IDL has the following system requirements:

• Operating systems:
  • Windows 10 and 11 (Intel/AMD 64-bit)
  • macOS 12 and 13 (Intel 64-bit (x86_64) and M-series (arm64))
  • Linux (Intel/AMD 64-bit, kernel 4.18.0 or higher and glibc 2.28 or higher)
• Disk space: Approximately 4 GB for installation
• Memory (RAM): Minimum of 8 GB*
• Number of processing cores: Minimum of 2, recommended 4 or more

An X-Windows manager is required for macOS. IDL was tested using XQuartz 2.8.5 on an M1 chipset.

* Most image display and processing capabilities in IDL have been designed to work with minimal amounts of system RAM. Having a lot of RAM can help to avoid occasional memory allocation problems, especially with large datasets. Tests have shown that 8 GB of RAM is adequate for most tasks run using the latest versions of IDL. However, if you anticipate working with very large datasets, or if you are building custom applications with ENVI+IDL code, then you may consider adding more RAM to your system.

IDL 9,0 Feature Support

The following table indicates which platforms support the corresponding feature. IDL technologies not listed in this table are assumed to work on all platforms.

Feature	Windows 64-bit	Mac 64-bit	Linux 64-bit
COM Object-Export (Export Bridge Assistant)	•
DataMiner	•		•
DICOM Network Services	•
DICOM Read/Write (IDLffDicomEx)	•
DICOM Read (IDLffDICOM)	•	•	•
Internationalization (I18N_*) conversion routines	•
IDL Advanced Math and Stats (IMSL Numerical Library) a	•		•
IDL Workbench	•	•	•
Java Object - Export (Export Bridge Assistant)	•	•	•
MrSID (IDLffMrSID)	•
READ_VIDEO	•	•	•
Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)		•	•
Video Read (IDLffVideoRead)	•	•	•
Video Write (IDLffVideoWrite)	•	•	•
WIDGET_BROWSER b	•		•
WRITE_VIDEO	•	•	•

^a IMSL requires glibc 2.14 or later.

^b WIDGET_BROWSER requires Kernel 3.10.0 or later, glibc 2.17 or later, and NSS 3.22 or later.