[Venkatesh]

I am willing to bet that at some point, FIRST will move the PC-based controllers. It will not be soon. But the trend towards electronics/programming challenges is unmistakeable. The appearance of autonomous, extremely powerful custom circuits, current sensors, encoders, the PIC, C, interrupts, and the CMUcam, all in 3 years. Control has had a busy few years and will continue to do so.

When FIRST introduced autonomous in 2003, but stuck with the Basic controller, they created the "Year of the Kludge." All sorts of interesting systems came together - processor interfacing, tons of sensors, etc. When FIRST comes up with a new superdemanding challenge and the kludges come out of the closet, they will have an incentive to move to PCs.

I'd bet on a PC/104 system, with an InnovationFirst Powersupply, auxiliary chips, and default code. Maybe 2010? Maybe 2015? Who knows.

Whatever it is, its coming.