> "Now, when is Microsoft going to release a PCI Express card that lets me boot my x64 Windows PC into RISCOS running on ARM?"
Can't tell if the author is referencing this or it's a coincidence, but 25 years ago there was a RISCOS machine popular in schools in the UK with a plugin x86 card to boot Windows 3.1 and run other IBM PC compatible software. Acorn Computers, the Archimedes range of desktops, and the card was from Aleph One using a Cyrix 486 chip. When Acorn was broken up, ARM Holdings was one of their subsidiaries which carried on.
And to bring this all full-circle, part of the reason why Acorn was broken up was that Apple specifically was interested in using ARM2 as a low-power chip for the Newton. ARM Holdings was originally an Acorn/VLSI/Apple joint venture.
Worth mentioning, you can buy small-run, newly-manufactured Apple II Z80 cards now in the 16-20MHz range (way faster than the host system), some even have a TMS9918 VDP chip for compatibility with MSX-1/Colecovision/SG1000 stuff.
Yeah, Ian's cards are the ones I was thinking of. There's an APMSX available on eBay, it introduced me to MSX gaming (and some colecovision and SG1000 conversions).
Only one nit: The "heavy metal" Microsoft logo silkscreened onto that card was introduced in early 1980, not the 70s, and hung around for less than two years before being replaced by the "Blibbet" logo in 1982.
Heavy Metal Microsoft will always be my favorite of their logos.
Wow, learned a lot from this post. I had a generic 80 column and Z80 card and never knew about all the Microsoft involvement in the Z80 stuff. I did always prefer the 6502 but being able to run Turbo Pascal and WordStar on my Apple ][ was a nice addition.
Can't tell if the author is referencing this or it's a coincidence, but 25 years ago there was a RISCOS machine popular in schools in the UK with a plugin x86 card to boot Windows 3.1 and run other IBM PC compatible software. Acorn Computers, the Archimedes range of desktops, and the card was from Aleph One using a Cyrix 486 chip. When Acorn was broken up, ARM Holdings was one of their subsidiaries which carried on.
http://www.riscos.com/the_archive/acorn/products/riscpc/pcca... and http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Mags/PCW/PCW... (PDF) and http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Aleph1/Aleph... (PDF) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers
Semi-relatedly (mixed computer architectures in one case) there was a half-PC/half-Sega-Megadrive machine in 1993 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_Mega_PC )