slick bits in computers (WAS: VAXen Rule!)

There were two unrelated bits: ignore the VAX thing for now, I was just illustrating that "things" can be found in almost any family of computer that are a disappointment, not just x86. Merely illustrative. The second part was the general question, which I guess was a bit too specific. What computers have you come across that are really neat and why. OK.- System/3{60,70,90,z} is neat for it's processor instruction set, PERQs for the user-microcode. SGI Origin 2000's are neat for their CRAYlink/NUMAlink interconnect system, AXPs for the PALcode idea (sort of a takeoff of the PERQ). If you saw a computer that has a serial port implementation that is so elegant that it struck you as a thing of beauty throw that in ... I'm just interested in getting a feel for what's out there that members feel is neat. I was kind of thinking hardware to start with, but it could be extended to software.