In an era when most kernel debuggers required two separate computers connected via a serial cable, SoftICE allowed developers to debug the kernel on the same machine they were working on.
The flagship kernel-mode debugger that gave the suite its legendary status. The Legend: SoftICE 4.3.2
SoftICE (Software In-Circuit Emulator) was a that ran "underneath" the Windows operating system. Unlike standard application-level debuggers that run as processes within Windows, SoftICE could suspend the entire operating system, including the kernel, to allow for line-by-line inspection of system-level code. Why SoftICE was Unique:
A C++ class library that encapsulated the complexities of the Windows Driver Model (WDM) and NT driver architectures.