California start-up Puzzle Systems in Morgan Hill is selling a $2,000 80386-based MS-DOS co-processor for Sbus-based Sparcstations and compatibles. The Synergy 386, Puzzle’s hardware-software combination, enables the Unix boxes to run any MS-DOS program that does not require a maths co-processor at speeds roughly the equivalent of an 80386SX machine, according to the firm’s founder James Leslie. The board includes a one-slot Sbus, Super-VGA graphics, 16Kb cache and a maximum 8Mb expanded memory. MS-DOS applications currently run as a task under SunView. An Open Look version is slated for the autumn. Users can cut-and-paste between MS-DOS and Unix and do not need Sun’s PC-NFS or Windows. Meanwhile Sun, whose past attempts at running MS-DOS under Unix on the Sun-386i were hampered by slow performance, is expected to go to Insignia Solutions Inc, San Francisco, California, for MS-DOS emulation on Sparc-based machines, cutting a deal to take Insignia’s SoftPC emulation package.
