In a Microsoft official email between Ben Waldman and Bill Gates (dated June 27, 1997) about destiny of Mac Office 2007 circulating these days on the web, a postscript from Waldman reveals Gates early interest in Connectix and possibly first report he had about virtualization:
P.S.: I owe you some info on connectix virtual PC – short answer is that it’s a cool product that emulates hardware (Trition chip set, IDE controller, Ethernet card, soundblaster, etc.) rather than Windows (like SoftWindows does), and so can run any OS – Win95, NT, Linux,DOS, etc. They are OEM-ing Win95 and DOS from us; we get money for every copy sold. I know the people there very well, and could easily arrange a demo for you. I also have a copy of the product they sent me, and could show it to you. Performance seems adequate on high-end Macs.
Watch a scan of original document here.