Linked by Nicholas Blachford on Tue 13th Jul 2004 21:56 UTC
After personal computers arrived in the 1970's they went through a series of revolutionary changes delivered by a series of different platforms. It's been over a decade since we've seen anything truly revolutionary, will we see a revolution again? I believe we could not only see revolution again, we could build it today.
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The Archimedes computer mentioned in the article progressed into the RiscPC range of computers and they are now owned by Castle Technology in the UK.
They sell a Xscale ARM chip in their IyonixPC using RISC OS, a GUI OS first developed in 1985(!)
http://www.castle-technology.co.uk/castle/front.html
Another company also produces an interesting 'next gen' desktop computer -The Omega Computer from MicroDigital UK.
This uses a number of FPGAs in its design to enable most of its hardware functions (video, io, etc.) to be reprogrammed should the need occur by the user.
http://www.microdigital.co.uk/omspec.htm
This is a 300MHz ARM based desktop PC using RISC OS Select as its operating System. 300MHz may seen slow to IBM Compat. PC owners but it's running a very fast OS.
An interface called the ARMTwister (a Intel Xscale 600MHz is due out sometime which will allow even faster operation.