MIDI-over-USB controllers are cheap as dirt these days. MIDI itself is an 8bit serial protocol.

@Opportunist: if you actually need the full performance of the computer for actual application use as opposed to the context switching typical user you describe. I think its also safe to note how crappy many modern applications feel upon modern operating systems upon modern computers... a result perhaps of taking this view you expressed to the extreme...3D, CAD, Pro-Audio, Pro-Video, Simulation/ Modelling all come to mind as applications where one wishes decent responsiveness and performance... don't forget about the overhead of context-switching also...

use them as speakers. PWM baybeee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsQd2n99zS4 but i like floppies better... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE

pandaboard.org brings hobbyists (not for OEM use apparently. you have to talk to TI about your own OMAP implementation if you want to OEM) a wicked ready-to-roll platform... load linux and go. fanless and high performance.

a light bulb turns on. the smell of fresh air. thank you. succinct

For the love of God, WHY THE HELL would you EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER consider using ANY product even REMOTELY related to Windows for Industrial Control Systems?????? THIS is not some anti-microsoft rant mind you- its simply that Industrial Control Systems DO NOT USE consumer operating systems but rather HARD REAL TIME OPERATING SYSTEMS. If you do not know what the word "Deterministic" means in relation to Embedded Computing, you should go look it up first. There is a process known as Verification whereby every goddamn functional unit and every goddamn line of code is mathematically proven, is rigorously tested in some kind of Unit Testing Verification Harness software, and you simply would not slap some Windows or even normal Linux on an Industrial Control System. If you have an Industrial Control System using ACTIVEfuckingX you are probably dealing with a developer who is not actually an embedded systems developer, but rather a lazy idiot. Ciao

assembly? you lazy dog you. i want to see direct manipulation of every flip-flip and logic gate with full karnaugh maps and truth tables for every state. OS? hahaha yeah right. find the schematic of the chip buddy. oh yeah- we want you to support many bloated stupid legacy protocol stacks...

if you are living in x86 land you may think a cpu needs to suck at least 10 watts and require a fan to do anything useful. embedded computing solved all that ages ago. you have tiny-process SOC with integrated controllers, peripherals, signal processing cores, etc... memory wastes energy. buses waste time. NOC NOC! that desktop you have is computing with some small percentage of its electricity usage, and dissapating heat with the other 99.99% of it. embedded devices can consume portions of a watt. there are milliwatt capable devices even... and yes, carbon nanotubes can be cheaply produced by a variety of methods. tech articles are often outdated and cyclically and mindlessly repeating old info.

evolution? i think a total groupware solution would depend on your needs (shared calendars etc...) and you end up rolling-your-own a bit. even shared calendars for resources like rooms is a hack with the M$ solution package...

sounds like a coarse-grained FPGA haha!