Why does your graphics card have its own processor and RAM, but not a hard disk or network interface? If only your graphics card were to go the last yard and become a graphics sub-computer with its own embedded operating system, then it could download its own goddamn drivers. It could also have its own power supply, which would save countless desktop computers from buckling under the strain of the latest 200W PCI-e card.

My vision is one of a hardware architecture that resembles the Mandelbrot set. Your CPU probably already has multiple cores, each with its own on-die RAM; how long before each of those cores are themselves composed of multiple cores? And going in the other direction, why not build a CPU by bolting four quad-core processors together? And then take four of those…

Built like Lego

Of course, there are scaling problems with this sort of recursive modularity, but I'm really not interested in such objections. Let the engineers figure that out; I'm an ideas man. I want a computer like a Lego brick. Not a metaphorical Lego brick; I want it to actually be housed inside a Lego brick that can be connected to other bricks to make a more powerful computer. Even if each brick was a 30cm cube to begin with, this would still be acceptable for a first generation product. The only rules I will insist on are that:

a) connecting them together should involve nothing more complicated than sticking one on top of the other

b) each brick should function as a standalone product with one face acting as a screen

c) bricks that are connected should seamlessly combine to offer a single desktop area with all the processors co-operating together

Come on, chop chop! I want a product brought to market by the end of 2009.