GemCookie wrote on 2024-05-24, 19:14:
I just gave this a shot. I had some initial issues with services.exe causing high CPU usage spikes, but they have gone away for the most part.
This patch lets Opera 12.18 run on a 486. Crazy to think that Opera supported these CPUs for 27 years!
I assume that the original Opera had been a clean i386 binary without much dependencies on additional x86 instructions.
Maybe it could be run on a plain 386, even, not sure.
Or a 486DLC, at least. That processor looks like a 486 to software, at least, despite being accused of being a "fake" 486 so often.
That being said, not sure if an x87 FPU must be present, as well.
Speaking of, I wonder if XP can run on an 486SX processor.
Normal Windows (DOS line) has WIN87EM.DLL, which is both an 8087 emulator and virtualizer.
"Emulator" because it can make x87 enabled applications run and "virtualizer" because it does manage context-switching of a real x87 unit.
That's necessary so that multiple Windows applications can share the x87 (they can run side by side).
Not sure how Windows NT works, though. Maybe it can work without an x87 floating point unit.
Last time I tried Windows NT on an plain 386 (no FPU), it was NT 3.1 Workstation.
Which by itself was an oddball. It supported multi-processor PCs on 386 basis, which later Windows NT versions didn't anymore.
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