A Forgotten Consumer PC Becomes a Floating Point Powerhouse
1 min read
Summary
London-based entrepreneur Michael Wessel found an old DOS 3D graphics package and attempted to run it on an 8088 PC.
Due to the 8088’s limited maths capabilities, Wessel augmented his machine with an 8087 maths co-processor, pioneering a method of adding the co-processor without needing to replace the CPU.
While such a setup would have been common during the 1980s, Wessel’s machine – a Schneider Euro PC – lacked the necessary socket.
European PC users of the time often had machines from less well-known brands like Amstrad, Schneider, Sinclair and Commodore, with the latter two increasingly offering 8088 machines as the 80286 and 80386 became more widely available.
