Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either "already" or "not any time soon", depending on how you count. Already - because you have VMs and backwards compatibility. As long as you keep using Intel x86_64, your apps would run, no emulation needed. Or you can use the VM. Not any time soon - because the computers are not speeding up that fast . 10 year old computers are still being used today, and even the latest CPUs are not orders of magnitude faster. S…
16-bit x86 code dependent on interacting with real hardware under precise timing doesn't always work well in a VM.
true, but the question was about "my currently running system (anno 2016)" - which means intel core most likely. And at that generation, there requirements for precise timing is extremely rare, it's mostly PCI/PCIe devices and they can be shared with VMs just fine.