While we're at it, can we get a new motherboard standard that acknowledges the fact that video cards are at least as complex as the motherboard itself? With the strong preference for a ring configuration for central cooling, like the trash can Mac Pros. Or a star one.

Can we just go full back plane with the CPU being just one of those cards on the back plane?

I had totally forgotten about those. Pretty cool in hindsight

I was thinking more about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMEbus

If I recall correctly the only reason that configuration was abandoned was because the physical distance between the CPU and RAM needed to be as short as possible. I liked the Pentium 2 card as much as the next guy but I like faster system speeds more.

Intel has a NUC in that form now. PCI-E style backpane in the case can accepts 11th gen and 12th gen CPU boards and a full size GPU.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/boards...

But I guess the CPU is still the hub of PCI-E networks right now.

If I wanted a desktop I'd be really excited about that right now.