Insignia Solutions Ltd, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is poised to become a key player in the evolving new power structure in the industry. In addition to being Microsoft Corp’s front-line defence against the forces of Sun Microsystems Inc WABI binary interface for Windows applications under Unix, and providing the MS-DOS and Windows emulator on most other vendors’ Unix machines, Insignia last week became one of only 12 companies to get on Apple Computer Inc’s Inside Track programme. It will be writing a native implementation of SoftPC for the PowerPC Mac, which is due to be available when Apple first ships the machines in January or February. The SoftPC version that gets up on the Mac will be the full Windows product that Insignia has just licensed from Microsoft, so that Windows and MS-DOS programs will be able to run legitimately on an IBM Corp chip-powered Mac. Insignia has labelled the product features of souped-up anti-WABI SoftPC SoftWindows, which is based on Bristol Technology’s Red Baron technology. Insignia reckons that emulation will become de rigeur on all machines by and by and that it will become a utility house.
