Insignia Solutions Ltd’s SoftWindows is a winner, MacWeek magazine reckons. Although to date, only alpha versions of the software, running on alpha versions of Apple Computer Inc’s PowerPC-based Macs (601s running at a mere 50MHz) have been demonstrated, it says that they go at very respectable 25MHz 80486 speeds – a level of performance that bodes well for the release version. A good PowerPC native-mode Windows implementation would seem enough to cement a warm relationship between Apple and Insignia, but this may not actually be the case. The trouble centres on the royalties Apple will have to pay Insignia, for the part it played in readying Houdini, the 80486 PDS board on view last week at Comdex. Apparently, the enthusiasm of the marketing and engineering groups excelled that of the contract lawyers, who still haven’t worked out the finer details.
