Re: [WinMac] Will a PC emulation program be able to run PC software on a network tower

jeff thorstad(thorstadj[at]macconnect.com)
Tue, 1 Sep 1998 11:05:47 -0000

>I run a public library computer center with 7 PowerMacs and 4 Gateways.
>We want to install a network CD rom tower and install a library of CD
>Rom Database resources and have every computer access them. Finding a
>tower that will work cross platform is no problem but when ordering the
>CD roms we have to choose either Windows, Dos or a MAC format. My
>question is this: Will a Software emulation program such as Virtual PC
>running on the Macs work in a network situation and allow the Mac user
>to access a Windows formatted CD over a fast ethernet network.
>Connectix Virtual PC Website says that it will read CD rom software but
>it doesnt' say anything about over an ethernet network (It will be a
>Fast Ethernet network). I have tried to contact Connectix but they
>don't respond. And the network Cd tower companies do not want to commit
>either way. Funny but it would seem that it would be worth $170 for
>Virtual PC and a borrowed Mac to find out in their R&D depts whether it
>does work as so many schools use Macs.

This should work just fine. VPC is slightly better at networking than
SoftWindows.

>Is there another way to go that I have not considered. And I am told
>that even though Virutal PC recommends 48 MB ram it really takes a good
>128 MB ram to run PC platform CD software

VPC recommends 48MB of RAM in your Mac so you can get up to 24MB in
Windows. 32MB in Windows is better, so the recommendation should be 64MB
for the Mac.

VPC needs around 10MB plus however much you need in Windows. I have 64MB
on my Mac and run just fine setting VPC at 41 or 42MB, which gives
Windows around 32MB to run in. Windows only runs as fast as it can run
past 32MB, adding more than 32MB RAM will only help if it actually gets
used by a big memory hog.

My system uses around 15MB with VPC running, so 42 + 15 = 57, leaving
barely enough to print or temporarily open email or something. So if you
only need to have VPC running, 64MB should be fine. But if you need other
software on the Mac running at the same time, you will need to upgrade
the RAM based on how many other programs will be used.

Jeff T
thorstadj@macconnect.com

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Tue Sep 01 1998 - 09:07:47 PDT