The PC comes full circle [lurks]

Bare with me readers for I am going to take you on a rollercoaster ride through the history of personal computing. In doing so we shall arrive at the present day with an understanding of how we got there and then contrast the irony of the current trends in PC form factors with that which has gone before.
The first generally available microcomputers, like the CBM Pet were modelled on the only other computers that existed, remote terminals into main frames. They were typically integrated monitors, keyboard and computer - terminals themselves largely modelled on teletext units before computers existed.
Probably the first computers any of us owned - except for folks like Amnesia and Floyd who worked out what PCs were for last year or something - was the 8-bit computers like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Vic 20.
Little keyboards that had the computer built into them. You slapped them down in front of a tele (to save money over a monitor) and often had an add-on to act as writable storage, there being some sort of cartridge for games. In effect they were games consoles that had a keyboard built into them and a few peripheral ports.
These cheap 8-bit computers co-existed in the same time frame with more expensive business and educational systems. They had already existed but things like the Apple II and the BBC Master had a low enough price that they were becoming more widespread. They also had the keyboard built-in but it slopped to a large thick back. It was so thick because it had I/O cards in it. Floppy disk controller for example (drives were still outbound) and updated graphics cards such as the 80 column card handy for serious business use.
Then came the form factor we're much more familiar with. The desktop case. That way your box with all the cards went under the monitor and they keyboard was detachable. This sort of form tended to be seen in all office and business varieties. Home users were still sticking to integrated boxes such as the updated Commodore and Spectrum machines. Rich folks had Apple IIes and BBC Masters, as did schools still because they already had a body of expertise there.
Back then, people didn't comprehend the whole Moore's Law thing. If you lashed out that much money on a computer, you were going to stick with it for a good few years.
And so it continued to the point that when the 16-bit era came along, home users were still using integrated computer/keyboard units with televisions or monitors (which at that time were basically the same thing). The Amiga and Atari machines looked similar because that was most convenient. Can you surmise this is because the bulk of usage of these systems was people that didn't have a lot of peripherals. Indeed, just adding a hard drive was a cumbersome side-car type device.
Then something really interesting happened. The IBM XT had come along as a bland low-spec business machine but margins were higher and clones were being banged out with lots of competing features. It was also easier to upgrade these systems year on year. The Amiga clung on with desktop case designs and a number of upgrades and a fanatical enthusiast following (including the common and insane practise of removing an Amiga 1200 motherboard and hacking it into a tower case. However the fact is, the thing which enabled them to be so cheaply made in the first place was holding back any real upgrades. It would need the original manufacturer to overhaul the system and they went bust. The integrated home-computer form factor had met it's doom.
The business cross-over had also served the PC platform very well. The PC was becoming a games machine in addition to the excellent business form factor (desktop with monitor). We know the history, the market exploded. Everyone had a desktop computer. The monitors sat on the fat desktop case, you had a detachable keyboard. When you upgraded, you just switched some cards, CPU, plugged extra stuff in the box and your desk stayed neat and tidy. A winning combination.
So it continued for many years with the only refinement that people tended to go for bigger monitors when the price dropped so the tower and mini tower form factor had overtaken the desktop in popularity as a minor physical reconfiguration. It also meant you could put the big box a little out of the way...
Now let's fast forward to last year. The Mini-ITX motherboard standard was introduced since all the big chipset makers had been integrating more and more bits of a PC into the same chips. The result was, the cost of a very small single board computer had fallen and the specification of these integrated parts was largely good enough. Shuttle probably can lay claim to starting the Mini-ITX revolution. The small cube design which crams a PC into a little cube.
Something else was happening, PC stuff hit the main stream, people were spending long periods at their computers. They became proud of their computers for the first time since the 16-bit enthusiast computing golden age. Suddenly it was no longer the hard core nuts at Hard OCP that wanted attractive and small computers. Mini ITX systems began to sell like hot cakes from a mass of different vendors, now basically offering the spec of a full sized tower system in the diminutive form factor.
Even full sized cases... since they were no longer a necessity, consumers are now being offered very attractive cases rolling out of the factory with windows in the side, neon lighting and various types of LCD and LED displays on the front panel. All without taking up a dremel and ordering some neon strips from the US!
Even those that care not so much for the appearance of their machines were asking why they needed a large beige box on their desk. Beyond mini-ITX systems, the cutting edge systems starting to filter out into retail today are the ultra-compact PCs. Computers like the Pelham Sloane PS1500 which has a tiny integrated PC built into a little box on the back of a TFT panel.
This though is integration for the sake of it to a large degree and one does sacrefice a good deal of specification and gains a lot of cost just to get shot of a small (mini-ITX, say) machine.
Then there's something new. I said earlier my history lesson was intended to make current developments seem deeply ironic given the passage of events passed. Now is that time. I present to you the Zero-Footprint PC. Remarkable isn't it. It's also surprising good value, upgradable with standard parts and this is just the first machine to return to the 8-bit form factor roots. I wonder if this isn't just the beginning.