SoftPC
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SoftPC and SoftWindows were two software x86 emulators developed by Insignia Solutions. Available originally on UNIX workstations to run MS-DOS, the software eventually was ported to Mac OS and gained the ability to run Windows software. Bundles of SoftPC with Windows (3.x generation) were called SoftWindows, although it was possible to install Windows into the virtual environment along with some special utilities provided by Insignia to achieve the same effect.
Though for several years from 1986 on Insignia held a niche for this product area, it then found heavy competition from Connectix with their Virtual PC product, and it was eventually sold in October 1999 to FWB Software which marketed it as RealPC, and then discontinued it in 2003.
When Microsoft released Windows NT it included a subsystem ("WOW" - Windows on Windows, later NTVDM) for running virtualised 16-bit Intel x86 programs. However, they had also made changes to Windows to allow it to run on alternative processors (Alpha, ppc), and for these an emulation layer was needed for programs compiled for Intel processors. Customized versions of Insignia's core emulation system were produced to this end, however the alternative NT architectures never became widely used.
