It's easy to put a cheap 486 into an enclosure that will make it fit with your stereo. The problem is that the system will no longer be "cheap." It's going to cost you a LOT more to make anything with a 486 to perform the functions of the Rio Receiver. Whomever wrote that as a suggestion on Slashdot obviously doesn't value their time very much either - you're going to have to write custom software one way or the other (or at the least, kludge someone else's).

The one cool thing I could see being added to these receiver type units is TV output with visualizations and info display. The possibilities with this are very cool. And I have the perfect suggestion for a single chip solution. Or multi-chip solutions as well.

Bruno