Connectix Virtual PC 5 for Mac OS 9/X

Review by Derek Peterson

Apple is currently shipping PowerMac G4 systems sporting a phenomenal 15 gigaflops of supercomputer performance. Their default operating system, Mac OS X, is built on industrial strength UNIX and is extremely stable, fast and secure. Currently, there are over 2,500 native applications for Mac OS X, and that number is growing rapidly each day. The reasons to own and run a Mac have never been better. Yet, for many it is difficult to justify switching to using a Macintosh when the majority of the software is designed for Wintel PCs. In the past, many companies have offered either hardware or software solutions allowing Wintel software to run on a Macintosh. In the past, hardware solutions have been very expensive and software solutions typically were slow and provided only limited functionality. That is until now.

Coming to the rescue is Virtual PC 5 from Connectix, an amazing application that allows you to run Windows Operating Systems and applications without having to leave your Mac desktop. This complex feat is accomplished through sophisticated software emulation of the Intel Pentium chipset as well as standard PC hardware components. The result is a fully functional Pentium PC allowing you to run Windows, DOS, OS/2, and Linux software right on your Mac without the purchase of additional hardware. Virtual PC 5 allows you to run one, or many, guest operating systems, even at the same time. You are only limited by your machine's RAM and disk space.

Connectix supports VPC5 only on native G3 or G4 systems having a CD-ROM drive and running Mac OS 9.1 or Mac OS X 10.1 (and newer). It is recommended that you have a minimum of a 400MHz G3 or G4 for OS X. VPC5 will take advantage of the G4 Velocity Engine (also known as AltiVec) for emulation of the Pentium's MMX multimedia instructions as well as video and display updates. Under Mac OS X, Virtual PC will make use of SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) for those fortunate enough to have Dual Processor G4 systems.

Since Virtual PC is a hardware emulator, you technically can install any operating system on it that is able to run on a Pentium processor. Connectix currently supports Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT 4.0, XP Home, XP Professional, PC DOS 2000, and several flavors of Linux such as Redhat (6.2 or later) and Mandrake (7.0 or later). You also can run several virtual machines on a system, even at the same time. This is an advantage that PC users don't even have the ability to do without rebooting. The system requirements vary depending on what guest OS(s) you are planning on running. Below is a list of the Connectix recommended requirements for various guest operating systems.

Connectix has several versions of Virtual PC available, each bundled with a different guest OS. One important thing to note is that all versions come with the same version of Virtual PC 5. You have the option of purchasing OS packs from Connectix which have a version of Windows preinstalled and configured for Virtual PC5. This allows you to have a fully functional copy of Windows running in a matter of a few minutes. Prices for Virtual PC 5 range from $99 for the DOS version to $249 for the Windows 2000 version. What many people also don't realize is that you can install your own operating systems as well. If you have your own copy of Windows, there is no need to purchase one that is bundled with VPC5. You could ultimately purchase Virtual PC 5 DOS (for $99) and install your own operating system. That's right, make Windows run on your Mac for under $100.

The exact requirements for free disk space and RAM depend on the operating systems running on a virtual machine and on your Macintosh.
Guest Operating System	Free Disk Space	Minimum Physical RAM
		Mac OS 9	Mac OS X
DOS	260 MB	64 MB	160 MB
Windows 95	500 MB	96 MB	192 MB
Windows 98	1 GB	128 MB	192 MB
Windows Me	1 GB	160 MB	192 MB
Windows NT 4	500 MB	128 MB	192 MB
Windows 2000 Pro	1.5 GB	192 MB	256 MB
Windows XP Home	2 GB	192 MB	256 MB
Windows XP Pro	2 GB	192 MB	256 MB
Linux	1 GB	128 MB	192 MB

When you install your own OS, Virtual PC will walk you through a very easy to use wizard that helps you to create the OS image. You complete the install of the OS and any applications that you want to run. From the Mac side, this image shows up as a large single file that expands and shrinks depending on how much (or little) you install. Backing up your Windows install is as simple as making a copy of that file. VPC5 also features undo-able drive images allowing you to back out of Windows sessions without saving changes to the image. This is ideal if you are beta testing, trying out new software or operating in a shared classroom or lab setup. This is an excellent safety net that even Windows users do not have the pleasure of relying upon.

Virtual PC 5 features some amazing features that make running Windows on your Mac a breeze. First, Connectix has taken into consideration the differences between Windows and Mac hardware and operating systems. For example, they have simulated right clicking in Windows since most Macs have a single button mouse and provided PC keyboard equivalents such as Print Screen. You also have the ability of copying something to the clipboard and pasting it in the other OS and even dragging and dropping files between desktops. Secondly, VPC5 also automatically shares removable media such as Zip, Jaz, FireWire, CD, and DVD between your Macintosh and virtual machine. Connectix only supports DVD dataÑDVD video is not supported. You can also share network volumes and drives with non-removable media. Third, VPC5 also features Virtual Switch support. In OS 9, this allows for a machine to have a fixed IP address. In OS X, this allows the virtual machine to operate as a fully functional network node that can even communicate with other systems, other virtual machines or even the same Macintosh. This new feature addresses enhanced network needs and improves the ability to share between operating systems.

Challenge of Processor Emulation

Connectix took on a large challenge in emulating an Intel Pentium processor on a PowerPC processor. Without going into an extremely technical explanation, suffice it to say that there are many architectural differences between the two processors. For example, Intel-compatible processors store multi-byte data in reverse order from the PowerPC processor, and, in turn this difference in "endianness" has to be corrected before executing Pentium code. Fortunately, the PowerPC G3 and G4 processors have a special mode that allows them to simulate the "little endian" mode (the native mode of Intel-compatible processors). Connectix was able to take advantage of this often overlooked feature of the PowerPC G3 and G4 processors and create a truly amazing and cost effective PC emulator.

Derek Peterson has a strong UNIX background and is one of the many recent Macintosh converts due to Mac OS X. Derek is currently a computer science major focusing on multimedia and graphics design. He is currently employed as a Tier 3 Escalations Technician for a nationwide broadband carrier and is also a part-time Graphic Design Artist and Electronic Music Turntablist performing locally under his self-started company Teknolust Productions. His productions are run completely using his dual processor PowerMac G4 desktop and his Titanium PowerBook G4 laptop.