Perhaps this could help you with the further development:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpiqemuwindows/files

Just download the "qemu.zip", unzip it and start the "run.bat". You should get a full RaspberryPi running on your desktop machine, which is probably a lot faster than the Pi
I've tried to replace the start commands with an xbian image, but got an kernel panic at the start. Perhaps you will manage it and get a full and fast development/test environment.

Two further guides:
http://techny.tumblr.com/post/3658972209...in-windows
http://xecdesign.com/qemu-emulating-rasp...-easy-way/

It's not any faster then the normal pi. The main problem is that i couldn't figure out how to build a custom initramdisk for qemu.