This article says Sun believes microprocessors will be dead by the end of the decade, to be replaced by 'microsystems', almost complete systems on one chip.

Seeing how Nishi envisioned the MSX becoming one chip already 20 years ago, I can only say he's truly a visionary man.

Seeing how more and more devices with (some) features similar to the new MSX are being released almost every day, I can only hope history will repeat itself and MSX will once again put an end to the wildgrowth at the right moment.

I doubt a one-chip compu will ever be.

If one cpu manufacturer (say, intel or amd) makes an all-in-one machine, than this means that manufacturers of videochips, soundchips etc. are left out in the rain.

And imagine a all-in-one chip.. usually ppl don't buy a complete new all-in-chip each week, since such a chip would be the price of a small computer, so, averagely ppl are stuck with relativily old hardware. When all parts of a system are custom, then ppl can slowly update their whole system. Besides, when I want an advanced soundcard, instead of the all-in cheap soundchip (with bad converters etc.) , then I need to be able to add this expensive soundcard. However, I don't wish to pay for a cheap soundcard I don't use.

People 'stuck with old hardware' is exactly what MSX was. Z80, TMS9918, AY-3-8910 were all proven 'old' hardware.
And even our lovely Moonsound is almost 10 years old!

There's nothing wrong with standardization of hardware and specifications, is there?
(afterall, it's the way consoles work too)

Besides, FPGA makes it possible to 'create new hardware' in a different way than before. And for your ultra-specialistic needs there is (will be) the possibility to connect extra hardware to e.g. an USB2 port

I have the feeling a lot of people don't know what they want in a new MSX.
Some react like it needs to compete with the PC, others want to see a pure game console, and some people continually change their minds about it :/

directX is pretty standard... you would, as a videocard producer, be insane to release a card that doesn't follow the dX standard.. The only thing that's not standard is the amount of polies it draws.Iit's good and it's bad .. the bad news is that not all games run the same framerate or L.O.D., the good news is that you are free to upgrade.

Why are you talking about PC hardware, wolf_?

Wasn't the article about that ? I wanted to say that, according to current PC's, I don't see a one-chip thing coming, or at least I don't see myself using it.

.. it has indeed zippo to do with an msx.

Of course the one-chip idea has got a lot to do with MSX. Why?

- It's brandable and licenseable. Any company can release it's own one chip computer if they want to.

- It's a standard. This time, FPGA allows developers of software (or 'softer hardware') to create their own extensions to that standard.

- There currently are no standards. DirectX is merely a bit of glue to make things work most of the time. Get two exactly the same computers. Now equip one of them with an ATI card, the other with an NVIDIA card. Play exactly the same games on those computers. You'll notice speed differences, image quality differences, problems on one computer while the other computer works perfectly (and vice versa) etc. etc. etc. Standards on PDA's/Mobile devices? Sure.. there's SymbianOS, OS for Series 60 (an adaptation of Symbian), Windows CE, PSION, PALM, .... I think GuyveR is right.. just as with the homecomputer era there currently is a wilgrowth of products in a niche that could use quite a lot of improvement.

- Back in the 'homecomputer days', people often wondered... is the MSX a game console, a personal computer or something else? The same thing happens now, already on our forums about this one-chipper. It's not a PC, it's not a PDA, it's not a Cellular Phone and it's not 'just' an MSX on a chip. It's more than that and something in between ;P

- In essence, the One-Chip-MSX can become a computer that 'just works'. Ever tried a new OS and spent days configuring shit you don't want to know about in the first place, searching the web for drivers, installing software that won't work on your OS or system in the end etc. etc. etc.? Ever tried to explain to n00bs why the latest games don't work on their system? (It's only a year -or two- old!! I have Windows XP installed! It says Windows XP on the box!). As long as hardware is not standardized software developers can (almost) give no guarantees whatsoever that their products will actually work. And they certainly can't guarantee their products will work/look exactly the same on every computer.