micro_8088

No, CPU is irrelevant, even the early chipsets didnt try to invent anything and mostly implemented XT peripherals leading to universal exchangeable clone bioses. OP didnt suggest otherwise, he simply mentioned author also publishes a couple open source 8088 motherboard projects: http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/sergey-s-xt http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/xi-8088 https://github.com/skiselev/micro_8088 http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/wildcard-88-mot...

I find stuff like this fascinating; I'm old enough to remember computers from this era, and—at least for me—I have a certain nostalgia for them. The first computer I was exposed to was an IBM PCjr, so seeing stuff like this 35 years after-the-fact is pretty mind-blowing, that people still care. I know that a lot of it is just my age, and I remember my father growing up used to work on/rebuild the engine on his '64 VW beetle. I think for very similar reasons: nostalgia, limited complexity, the tangibility of the "API". For me, POKEing a value in memory and seeing the screen change or a sound play is tangible. The opcodes of an 8088 are _just_ enough that I can feel like I understand it. Modern computers feel several orders of magnitude more complex and—admittedly—more powerful, but at a _cost_. I'm sure my dad thought the same about electr