Parallel Query on Oracle 8

I understand that Oracle 8 is capable of running a parallel query. I have several questions:
1. Is this capability limited to only specific platforms (i.e. - Unix) ? Is it possible on NT machines ?
2. Does the query has to be written be written in some parallel form ? Can Oracle benefit from multiprocessing if the query is not explicitly written for that ?

Thanks,
Amit Received on Mon Jun 01 1998 - 11:00:55 CDT