MainSoft Corp’s Windows-to-Unix tool, its MainWin Software Developers Kit, becomes commercially available this month. It is designed to eanble developers to create multiple versions of native-mode applications to reach Sun Microsystems Inc, IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Silicon Graphics Inc workstations from the same code base that supports Windows 3.1 and maintain the look and feel of the original C or C++-based Windows package. (Users can switch to Motif on the fly). With the underlying code unaltered, all versions can be upgraded simultaneously. MainSoft – as French company Machine Independent Software SA styles itself – claims its applications have 10 to 20 times higher performance than Wabi-based applications. In comparisons it ran against Wabi using Chess from Gnu Wabi on a Sparc Classic took it close to eight minutes to make the first move, Windows on a 66MHz 80486 took 24 seconds and MainWin on a Sparc Classic took 26 seconds. MainWin on an RS/6000 230 took 20 seconds, on an HP 715/33 it took 17 seconds and on a Sparc 10 it took 11 seconds. On a WinTach benchmark – including word processing, computer-aided design drawing, spreadsheet and Paint, Wabi on a Classic rated 7.7 overall, Windows on a 66MHz 80486 a 13.5, MainWin on a Classic 14.0, on an IBM 230 a 24.5, on an HP 715/33 a 34.6 and on a Sparc 10 a 53.5. The MainWin SDK is $5,000 for the first copy, $2,000 for additional copies. The end-user environment, MainWin for Workstations, costs $200.