I think its been stated a few times that the i387 emulation code 
sucks rocks.  Math coprocessors are cheap (god I hate people who
answer questions with 'buy this' -- so forgive me) and speedy.

Maple in emulation code sounds slow and ugly.  (How much does maple
cost anyhow? -- is it for X? (please reply to me directly))

The specific problem is that not all opcodes are dealt with by the
i386 math emulation code.  Evidently, one or more of these are 
being used.

-j