The article doesn't really mention transputers, which were existent at the time and were remarkably similar in vision, with parallel multiprocessing, hardware network links, the Occam language, a ground-up Helios OS, and custom graphics card (Blossom, which would lead to the VGA standard).
Having a 3-element hardware stack somewhat restricts the use of languages on it - I imagine that Occam is similar to Forth in operation?