Actually, there is some work being done on this. The one that I know of
is called 'Bochs'. It's currently only emulates an 8086, but does it well
enough to run MS-Win 3.0. There's a new version at
ftp.std.com:/pub/bochs. Unfortunately, it's shareware, so it couldn't be
included in Linux/Alpha, and it's still really primitive.
Starting a new emulator from scratch (or the 387 code) seems like a big
effort for relatively low payoff. It would probably be easier to
decompile the BIOS code from individual cards, even in the long run.
For things like Wine or DOSEMU, what would be really good is a dynamic
compiling emulator, instead of the more typical interpreting type.
Such a thing could probably emulate faster than most Intel silicon can,
and it would probably make Linux/Alpha (if not Alpha's) much more attractive
overall. It would be just slightly difficult to write, however :-).
Randy Smith