80x86 PC Emulators

Last updated: Wed 10:00 7/2/1997.

Main List

• BOCHS (UNIX & X) -- (complete PC hardware emulator) emulates PC hardware sufficiently well to boot DOS/Windows 3.1 or even Windows 95 in a completely encapsulated environment on pretty much any UNIX box. Not very fast, but it's fun to run your own encapsulated PC.

• WINE (UNIX & X) -- runs MS-Windows 3.1 executables (OS only) under Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. The main page I could find, Dag Asheim's WINE page, has lots of information for interested parties and would-be developers. This is a freeware project, so all are encouraged to join in.

• DOSEMU (Linux/FreeBSD/NetBSD) -- runs DOS executables (OS only) under some of the free UNIX-like OSes, primarily being developed on Linux. This is also a freeware project, so full source is available. One of the main FTP sites is here, but it is pretty busy, so I'll get a better access point for this link. It seems to be able to run a LOT of things, as this compatibility file attests.

• Wabi and WabiServer (UNIX & X) -- runs MS-Windows 3.1 executables under Solaris on x86 and SPARC platforms. An interesting point is that they claim to support quite a bit of Windows 3.1 details such as DDE, OLE, and ODBC. A product from Sun Microsystems.

• Willows -- Win16 and Win32 emulation on a startlingly long list of hardware and software environments. By Willows Software, Inc.

• SoftWindows 3.0 and 95, and NTRIGUE (UNIX & X/NeXTStep/MacOS) -- SoftWindows 3.0 has a broad range of Windows 3.1 applications support. SoftWindows 95 claims support for native Windows 95 apps. Produced by Insignia Solutions.

• OS/2 WARP will run MS-Windows 3.1 and DOS executables (OS only). From IBM.

• FX!32 -- An emulator for running x86 Win32 applications on an Alpha running Windows NT. Particularly interesting in that it apparently has the best performance for the final running application of any translator/emulator currently in existence, written by DEC. A slowdown of something like 1.3 X is what they claim.

• MS-Windows 3.1 (see MS-Windows 95 mentioned below)

• MS-Windows 95 will run DOS executables (OS only). The whole VM system appears to be a remodeled version of MS-Windows 3.11, which runs on top of a DOS image, and uses this same image as a source for it's DOS emulation system, and is therefore not isolated by protection boundaries from the rest of the system. It's unclear to me exactly how much Windows 95 isolates itself from such problems. The book "Undocumented Windows 95 Resource Kit" is informative in this regard, though of course not difinitive.

• MS-Windows NT 3.x and 4.0 runs MS-Windows 3.1 and DOS executables, for all supported architectures (80[3456]86, MIPS, Alpha, PowerPC). The Intel 80[3456]86 version does OS emulation and simply rebinds the API, while the others do full CPU emulation as well. It's unsure to me what level (just 80286, or full 80386) of emulation is provided in the other versions. It is certain that only Win16 apps are supported by the bundled emulation mechanisms.

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