It's a good thing I read the thread before commenting because that was exactly what I was going to write!
Naturally you've got my vote.
Let me add a bit of history to reduce the 'me too' content: There was an interesting hardware development at the same time which was specifically tailored to these channels, the 'transputer' by INMOS.
The whole upshot of this idea was that processors and a bit of support structure would live on a small dimm like package that you could stick into a base platform to create a mini cluster on a card.
I think this idea was well ahead of its time and that eventually we'll see something very much like it as our future hardware architecture. After all the current trend towards clustering and miniaturization all point in that direction.