Everything old is new again

I was actually thinking about this yesterday, and wondering why nobody had gone back to a "the keyboard is the computer" mode.

Now we know that I'm (a) prescient, but (b) not as prescient as the folks at NorhTec, who have announced the Gecko Surfboard, which incorporates a 1 GHz SOC (system on chip) with integrated graphics and audio. Comes standard with 512MB of memory and 10/100 ethernet, with optional 802.11b/g support, and runs Linux or Windows.

Just for fun, here's a picture of a Commodore 64 system (introduced in January of 1982). While the C64 also sported integrated graphics and audio, similarities end there... it had a 1 MHz processor and 64K of RAM, and no persistent storage or networking capabilities.