[Author/submitter here] > Did anyone ever try taking this concept further? Well, yes, they did, but not on x86. ISTM, from your later responses, that you hav

[Author/submitter here] > Did anyone ever try taking this concept further? Well, yes, they did, but not on x86. ISTM, from your later responses, that you have not fully defined what your idea is. So the answer, based on what you said later, is both "yes" and "no." No, it has not been done on x86. It is not likely to: x86 is still comfortably as fast as just about anything else out there, so there is no candidate host. Crusoe chips did not do x86 emulation for performance reasons. They did it for power consumption reasons. They could run x86 code reasonably fast, but on much less electricity while producing much less heat. They sold. I tried one. It was good. Benchmarks are very misleading and so are most of the comments here: its performance was pretty good on second and subsequent runs of whatever the test was, as the first run was used for performance profiling and generation of code for the emulator. Result: first run slow, second run much faster, entirely separate from any disk caching. But it drew Intel's attention and Intel responded by making much more power-efficient CPUs. However, what you are asking, emulating x86 for performance -- that isn't going to happen. Even Apple Silicon Macs aren't that quick... not yet. Entire new motherboards that emulate the original CPU? Sure. There are lots. Here's an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Next https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Next Here's a plug-compatible new computer compatible with an Amiga: http://www.apollo-computer.com/v4standalone.php http://www.apollo-computer.com/v4standalone.php Here's one compatible with a Sinclair QL, called the Q68: https://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2203 https://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2203 I think the PiStorm counts too, but it does need a working host motherboard. But yes, it has been done, but not for x86 and won't be.