Windows NT 3.1 on DEC Alpha AXP
As I was preparing the Windows NT RISC exhibit for VCF west, I realized that I'm missing a rather important piece of the history. While I will be showing the potentially last DEC Alpha Windows build ever - AXP64 2210, I don't have anything earlier than NT 3.51. I would be nice to showcase the very first RTM version - NT 3.1. From time perspective, NT did not get popular until the version 3.5 and later. Windows NT 3.1 would be considered rare even on a 386, let alone on a RISC CPU! So what RISC hardware does Windows NT 3.1 run on?
The early non-x86 versions of Windows NT are absolutely fascinating, and finding a machine that can run one of these versions has always been high on my list, together with the various Itanium versions of Windows. I can't quite explain what's so exciting and attractive about it, but it feels like you're doing something unholy, something you're not supposed to be doing. Especially the later versions, deeper into the Wintel era, feel like they're illegal.