The hardware requirements for VisualAPL for Visual Studio 2008 are the same as the Microsoft-suggested hardware requirements for Visual Studio 2008. Go here to learn more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4c26cc39.aspx
VisualAPL adds a small amount of software to the computer's hard disk, including about 10Mb of VisualAPL programming assemblies, documentation, aplnext.ttf font and activation components.
Of course performance and convenience will vary with the quality of the hardware selected. For example a 'netbook' with a tiny display size may not conveniently display the various Visual Studio 2008 windows. Hard disk performance may diminish as the total capacity is reached by installed software and an increasing number of completed project source code files. Limited memory may affect the build time and parse time within Visual Studio 2008.
The performance of the (.Net assembly) output of VisualAPL is excellent, but will depend on the end user-selected hardware. Visual Studio 2008 provides a programmer option to target selected hardware environments, for enhanced performance in those environments.