tristan@killer.UUCP (Rob Beckham) (05/09/88)
I had a chance to see SoftPC run on a MacII. This SOFTWARE (no card) emulates an IBM PC-XT. This is a wonderful piece of software. The program even makes the sounds of a PC starting up. We ran a variety of software. From color games to PC comm programs. It runs DOS 3.3. The Mac II runs it with full color. At one point we had a Mac II acting like a PC, running the program readmac.com reading Macpaint files. This thing is supposed to be able to run Flight Sim. I think it is sharp that the Mac can now run IBM software, while running Mac software!
nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather) (05/10/88)
In article <4030@killer.UUCP>, tristan@killer.UUCP (Rob Beckham) writes: > I think it is sharp that the Mac can now run IBM software, > while running Mac software! Do you have any feel for how fast it runs, compared with (say) an XT? -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather nather@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU
jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU (Rob Jellinghaus) (05/12/88)
In article <4030@killer.UUCP> tristan@killer.UUCP (Rob Beckham) writes: >I had a chance to see SoftPC run on a MacII. This SOFTWARE (no card) emulates >an IBM PC-XT. This is a wonderful piece of software. The program even makes ARRGH!! Once again, someone posts a teaser with NO follow-up or contact information.... - WHO produces Soft-PC? - WHERE can I buy it from? - HOW MUCH does it cost? - WHAT kind of hardware does it need to run? - And WHY, WHY, WHY didn't you include any of this information in your original posting????? Postings such as the above teaser are well-nigh USELESS unless they include some real information about the product. I love being able to hear about great new stuff over the net, but I HATE not being given enough details! Please, all of you, when you post a hot tip like the one above, tell us *everything* you know (or as much as you can tell, anyway), so I don't have to waste bandwidth with a posting like this. Rob Jellinghaus | "The way I see it, computers'll be gone jellinghaus-robert@CS.Yale.EDU | in another 10 years. But the country's ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET | always gonna need truck drivers." {y'all}!ihnp4!hsi!yale!robertj | -- Truck driver interviewed in _Time_
ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac) (05/12/88)
In article <28885@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> jellinghaus-robert@yale.UUCP writes: >In article <4030@killer.UUCP> tristan@killer.UUCP (Rob Beckham) writes: >>I had a chance to see SoftPC run on a MacII. This SOFTWARE (no >>card) emulates an IBM PC-XT. This is a wonderful piece of software. >ARRGH!! Once again, someone posts a teaser with NO follow-up or >contact information.... >- WHO produces Soft-PC? Insignia Solutions Inc. Cupertino, CA 95015-0399 Tel: (408) 446-4992 FAX: (408) 446-2236 >- WHERE can I buy it from? Call and ask Insignia about dealers. >- HOW MUCH does it cost? Their ad doesn't say. >- WHAT kind of hardware does it need to run? A Mac II or an SE with accelerator card. All this info is from Insignia's ad in MacWEEK, May 10, 1988. The ad is pretty low on content, so look for serious reviews. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214 On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"
artw@pnet01.cts.com (Art Weiss) (05/13/88)
I'm using an Amiga 2000 with a Bridgeboard right now. The Bridgeboard makes
your Amiga 2 machines in one box. I'm very happy with the system and the
Bridgeboard is a highly compatible clone as far as its operation is concerned.
I'm using a Miniscribe 30 meg hard card and a multifunction card in the PC-Bus
slots and they have been working without a hitch.
Commodore is coming out with an AT Bridgeboard in the next few months, and
I'll probably be replacing my XT card with the new one.
...Artjellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU (Rob Jellinghaus) (05/13/88)
All this stuff about SoftPC sounds really neat, and the name of the
company has even come up (Insignia Solutions?), but I still don't
know where to get it or for how much. Also, how does it run the
IBM software? Do you have to have an IBM 5 1/4" drive hooked up to
your Mac II via interface card (like Apple's 5 1/4", for example)?
Can you load IBM programs (especially copy-protected programs) onto
your Mac's hard drive and run them from the Mac? Does SoftPC work
under Multifinder?
And most of all... I've heard that the thing can run Flight Simulator.
How about Starflight? Thexder? Other arcade or strategy games? If
it can, it might be a great solution to the appalling dearth of Mac
II games! (Assuming there's some convenient way to copy these copy-
perverted games onto the Mac's HD, else it's pretty useless....)
Don't keep me in suspense! What's the scoop?
Rob Jellinghaus | Robert Anson Heinlein
jellinghaus-robert@CS.Yale.EDU | 1907-1988
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET | A man who touched many lives.
{y'all}!ihnp4!hsi!yale!robertj | May we be worthy of his legacy.Jerry_Geronimo_Whitnell@cup.portal.com (05/14/88)
Just talked to Innovative Solutions and found out that Soft-PC is $595.00 and is available now. Jerry Whintell jwhitnel@cup.portal.com ...!sun!cup.portal.com!jwhitnell
DBLCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (07/14/88)
I have seen in trade papers articles about a software product called softpc ( I think). It is supposed to be an all software emulation of an IBM PC (intel 8086 machine). Does anyone know who sells this product and does anyone know how good an emulation it is? In other words how good is it at running applications and games etc ? Before anyone starts asking me why would I want to run PC software when I have a Mac?... I just think it would be good to have not that I don't think Macs are better machines than IBM's.. David Lopez CUNY/UCC bitnet: dblcu@cunyvm internet: dblcu@cunyvm.cuny.edu disclaimer: The usual rubbish about my own opinions etc...
benjamin_kuo@pedro.UUCP (Benjamin Kuo) (07/23/88)
I've talked to several people who have used it, and it is rated something like 1.3 on the Norton benchmarks, (1.3 times the speed of an XT). The graphics and text, and disk access are all faster than AST's 286 card, and it is fully compatible.. I haven't used it, but that's what I've heard from some pretty reliable associates. Only one problem: It requires 2 meg, or 4 meg for max operating speed.
lengge@ethz.UUCP (Thomas Lenggenhager) (07/27/88)
> IBM PC (intel 8086 machine). Does anyone know who sells this product and > does anyone know how good an emulation it is? In other words how good is > it at running applications and games etc ? SoftPC is *THE* product for all those who have to use some old PC applications for some reason. I found it pretty stable, but I didn't test it very carefully. The problems I encountered in a short test: - Trying to change the print settings in WordPerfect - Trying to make a pie chart in Symphony At the MacWorld Expo in Amsterdam they ran MS Flight Simulator, a great test application for other IBM-PC compatibles (Microsoft has done a good job with that, too :-) ), and it ran without problems. I have extensively used utility software like Norton Commander and Norton Utilities without any problem! It works really great. One drawback is the speed. It is very slow. It is as slow as the old AST 286 card. And there you have extra hardware! So, AST was forced to speed up their product. I haven't seen the new product however, so I can't tell if there is a difference. However, if you have enough RAM, you can load everything into memory and everything flies :-). Then, the speed is like the speed of an IBM-AT. The other drawbacks: - It is not compatible with the System Upgrade 6.0!! (Does anyone knows why?) - The installation procedure is somewhat tedious - You can't easily copy the configured application with its files to another hard disk. My advice: Instead of buying an extra 80286-card, do buy SoftPC with some extra SIMMs. This way you have a good PC in your Mac and can use the extra RAM for other things. Gary T. Czychi University of St.Gallen, Switzerland ====== CZYCHI@CSGHSG52.BITNET (also: CSGHSG53,CSGHSG5A) A-friends-account.UUCP :-) Tel.: --41 / 71 / 27 52 68 --49 / 211 / 46 01 23 Private-SNail: Office-SNail: Schorenstr. 11a Hochschule St.Gallen CH - 9000 St.Gallen Rechenzentrum Z.Hd. Herrn Gary Czychi CH - 9000 St.Gallen
reeck@lclark.UUCP (David Reeck) (07/30/88)
On this subject, has anybody had exprience with MacChuck? It seems (to me) to be about the best solution for a person who wants both operating environments was to get a cheap IBM Clone, attach it to the mac with a good serial cable, and run "MacChuck". That way if you need access to a Dos intensive application, you can always go over to the other box and run it that way, but most things will run in a window on your mac. This is just my impression of it, I really don't know how it works. Has anybody had exprience with it?
ALE101@PSUVM.BITNET (Allen Edmiston) (11/09/89)
I have recently come upon an advertising for SoftPC v1.3. The package
claims to be able to run MS-DOS based application on the Mac with NO
hardware modifications...assuming you have a Mac II/IIx with at least
2MB memory and 3MB disk space. It makes a statememt that it perfectly
duplicates the IBM PC/XT. I was wondering if the claim really holds or
if there is some loop holes. Also I am not famialiar with the IBM
products but use their software...is the XT a good computer?
- Allenkevind@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Kevin Draz) (11/14/89)
In regards to Soft-PC, by Insignia Solutions: I purchased a copy when I worked at an Apple dealer, and run on my Mac IIcx. I have found that it does indeed run every PC app I throw at it. Especially "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards." It gives CGA emulation, and Norton reports it is actually slightly FASTER than the original XT, and it's hard disk performance is 20x faster. And yes, no hardware mods are necessary - it will even run in the background under MultiFinder. It is very memory hungry, however. It likes 4MB or more, but will run with a minimum of 2. It emulates the 8088 processor in software. Not really so difficult, as a 4.77 MHZ, 8 bit chip is not too hard for a 16 MHZ, 32 bit CPU to "interpret". This gives you a very crude estimate of 7-8 times the MIPS of the slower machine. Using a look-up table approach to opcodes, you would only have 8 CPU instructions (again very crude way to measure, the instructions execute in tremendously various numbers of clock cycles.) to execute one emulated opcode - not so bad. With some "filtering" for hardware mapped I/O and memory addresses, you trap on accesses to these addresses, and duplicate the expected hardware result. A hard disk is mapped to a user-selectable sized "virtual" hard disk, which appears as a normal macintosh file. You can install a C: and a D:. An apple 5.25" drive, or the FDHD can be used as drive A:. An optional drive E: can be created, which acts as a network drive and actually accesses Macintosh files. I find the product to be useful, as well as amusing, and well worth the $200 price tag. (Now, will someone do such a good job for a IIe/IIgs emulator? ) -- ---- kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com Tektronix Color Printers Technical Support
mikel@goofy.Apple.COM (Mikel Evins) (11/16/89)
SoftPC runs everything that I have tried except the game StarFlight from Electronic Arts. --me
thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) (01/10/90)
I apologize if this has been a recent topic, but I was wondering if anyone out there has experience with Soft PC. I have heard rumors that the latest version allows emulation up to speeds of a AT class PC. Is this true? What machines can obtain this speed? The IIci? How about an SE/30? (my machine) Thanks in advance. ----Derek Fong fong@cive.stanford.edu thewho@portia.stanford.edu
Jerry.Andrews@f426.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Jerry Andrews) (01/11/90)
DF> out there has experience with Soft PC. I have heard rumors that the I'm doing Clipper software development on SoftPC (I don't recommend this, BTW). The Norton index is 1.5 (...time the speed of a 4.77MHz 8088, presumably) on my IIcx. The display emulates CGA. This is an unbelievably robust program. I've seen it raise a dialog box rather than try to execute a forbidden instruction, and a lot of my relatively-poorly behaved utilities run perfectly on it. Highly recommended, but not for production work. -- Jerry Andrews at The Black Cat's Shack (Fidonet 1:109/401) Internet: Jerry.Andrews@f426.n109.z1.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!uunet!blkcat!426!Jerry.Andrews
rsutc@fornax.UUCP (Rick Sutcliffe) (01/12/90)
In article <8107@portia.Stanford.EDU>, thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: > I apologize if this has been a recent topic, but I was wondering if anyone > out there has experience with Soft PC. I have heard rumors that the latest > version allows emulation up to speeds of a AT class PC. Is this true? What > machines can obtain this speed? The IIci? How about an SE/30? (my machine) I just got SoftPC and am rumming it on a Mac II with 4M of memory. It takeover 90 sec to quit, whether one is just closing it, or transferring to the finder in Multifinder. Same problem if I ditch my INITs or use Finder. I have done nothing further, and the company has not responded to my query. Rick Sutcliffe
Jerry.Andrews@f426.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Jerry Andrews) (01/13/90)
For those of you who sent me private mail with questions on SoftPC -- as soon as I figure out how to address mail back to you, I'll reply! Honest! -- Jerry Andrews at The Black Cat's Shack (Fidonet 1:109/401) Internet: Jerry.Andrews@f426.n109.z1.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!uunet!blkcat!426!Jerry.Andrews
rsutc@fornax.UUCP (Rick Sutcliffe) (01/16/90)
I thought you may be interested to know that SoftPC has the same problem with the Datadesk keyboard as does Excel2.2 -- in this case manifested by taking 90 seconds to quit while it polls the keyboard. Insignia has promised a fix. Rick Sutcliffe Associate Professor \ (89-90 only) Visitor Computing Science & Mathematics \ School of Computing Science Trinity Western University \ Simon Fraser University 7600 Glover Rd., \ Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Langley B.C. Canada V3A 4R9 e-mail: Rick_Sutcliffe@cc.sfu.ca OR Compuserve 76475,3406