Users can run multiple versions of Windows (or Red Hat Linux), limited only by memory and drive capacity. This feature, in turn, facilitates VPC's new ability to run multiple virtual machines simultaneously. With previous versions, users had to pre-set the drive space. The new Windows disk image - a virtual PC hard drive on the Mac - automatically expands to accommodate needed space, up to a maximum of 127GB under Mac OS 9. Further enhancing performance, users can allocate up to 512MB of RAM to Windows 98 without quitting Virtual PC.
The company said that Velocity Engine acceleration will be most apparent when running multimedia applications under Windows. Performance is typically the biggest issue with PC emulators, and Connectix said the new version is up to twice as fast as previous releases, with enhanced support for the PowerPC G4's Velocity Engine. Virtual PC allows users to run PC DOS, Red Hat Linux and various flavors of Microsoft Windows on a Power Mac G3 or G4 system. Versions with other operating systems will follow, Connectix said.
Virtual PC 4.0 is available now with Windows 98 pre-installed. on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its Virtual PC emulation software for the Mac, boasting faster performance and other new features, including the ability to expand the Windows disk image as space requires.
