IIRC they were using a C/C++ compiler front end from EDG to parse C/C++ code to a form they used for the simulation/analysis.
see https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~weimerw/2006-655/reading/bush-pr... for more info.
Microsoft bought Intrinsa several years ago.
One of the articles/papers I recall was that the big problem for PREfix when simulating the behaviour of code was the explosion in complexity if a given function had multiple paths through it (e.g. multiple if's/switch statements). PREfix had strategies to reduce the time spent in these highly complex functions.
Here's a 2004 link that discusses the limitations of PREfix's simulated analysis - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...
The above article also talks about Microsoft's newer (for 2004) static analysis tools.
There's a Netscape engineer endorsement in a CNet article when they first released PREfix. see https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/component-bugs-stamp...