I sent the following message to Connectix. I'm hoping that they listen!
"I'm sending you this email to plead with your organization to develop a product that produces much better PC emulation at a lower cost. Currently your Virtual PC product does not allow for acceptable PC emulation for high end engineering applications or games developed for the PC market. The only increase in speed that can be hoped for in the Macintosh community is to pray for a supercomputer Macintosh to run your Virtual PC at acceptable speeds. That may be another two or three years before that happens. I've always said that the greatest computer that could ever be developed would be a Macintosh that runs PC applications (except of course if all applications were to run on either a Mac or PC than their would be no need for the PC). I refuse to purchase a PC, but because I'm an engineer I've thought about this unmentionable act many times. So here's my proposal to your organization:
Develop a PCI board that accepts todays modern Intel compatible chips
(Athlon, Merced, et al.). This board would be sold either bare with Virtual
PC (at significantly reduced costs --> ie. $150 to $200). This would
allow the consumer to purchase their prefered chip on the open market.
Connectix could also make a deal with one of the chip manufactures to
provide chips at reduced costs to Connectix, and in turn Connectix could
turn around and sell to the consumer with a markup (again the product
should somehow stay in at least the $500 to $800 range or it would fail).
This board I'm proposing would have no graphics, no sound, no memory, and
no USB connectors. All it would provide is a slot for a Intel compatible chip
and a bootup ROM. Your excellent Virtual PC product would be used to provide
PC emulation of sound, periphals, graphics, and networking by using the
Macintosh for muscle. This product would use Mac's graphics' chips (ATI, TDFX,
NVIDA) for OpenGL or gaming video emulation. This product would also use
Mac's USB/Firewire ports for attaching PC or Mac periphals (gaming joysticks,
printers, et al.). Also, the Mac's main memory would be used for PC emulation.
I would buy the above product in a second. I believe that this combination of software/hardware to provide PC emulation for Macintosh users would be a huge succes. I believe that the Mac has become significantly robust in the memory and graphics arena to provide adequate emulation of PC video (many PC/Mac video boards are similar). Macintosh users can make investments in their Macintosh (ie. better video, better or more memory, etc...), and this product would be able to use these improvements. I hope that you consider the above product. The only really good solution to Macintosh users is to either buy a PC outright, or to invest in an OrangeMicro PC board. These boards are crippled with their own memory requirements, and poor video performance soldered on the board. Also, they are very expensive and do not allow for adoption of newer Intel compatible chips."
What does everyone think?
Top
