Editing Jazz (computer) (section)

{{Short description|Computer architecture}}
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The '''Jazz''' computer architecture is a motherboard and chipset design originally developed by [[Microsoft]] for use in developing [[Windows NT]]. The design was eventually used as the basis for most [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]]-based Windows NT systems.

In part because Microsoft intended NT to be portable between various [[microprocessor]] architectures, the [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]] [[RISC]] architecture was chosen for one of the first development platforms for the NT project in the late 1980s/early 1990s. However, around 1990, the existing MIPS-based systems (such as the [[TURBOchannel]]-equipped [[DECstation]] or the [[SGI Indigo]]) varied drastically from standard [[Intel]] [[personal computer]]s such as the [[IBM AT]]&mdash;for example, neither used the [[Industry Standard Architecture|ISA]] bus so common in [[Intel 80386|Intel 386]]-class machines.

For those and other reasons, Microsoft decided to design their own MIPS-based hardware platform on which to develop NT, which resulted in the Jazz architecture. Later, Microsoft sold this architecture design to the [[MIPS Technologies|MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.]] where it became the [[MIPS Magnum]].