Bit of trivia: the original development platform for Windows NT was the Intel i860, then MIPS. It was ported to x86 later. Design decision to keep x86-isms ou

Bit of trivia: the original development platform for Windows NT was the Intel i860, then MIPS. It was ported to x86 later. Design decision to keep x86-isms out. It was always intended to be very portable. Microsoft wanted into the high-end workstation and server market. X86 was not competitive there. Alpha was the fastest chip in the world by a large margin when introduced. x86 would not meet/exceed RISC performance until the late 90s.