This paper describes a new design methodology for a class of next-generation computers. Our proposal, the event-driven computer (EDC), is primarily a data-driven heterogeneous system which is supplemented with control-driven activities; such a combined approach is aimed at extracting the advantages of both the ‘pure’ data-driven and control-driven systems while alleviating their shortcomings. Compared to other similar designs EDC has the advantages of a better resource utilisation, array processing capabilities and a higher speed range. The hardware architecture, language features and performance evaluation are discussed. A recently developed loop-structured interconnection network is modified for this application; with a configuration of 64 loops, it can connect up to approximately 400 processors, and hence an execution speed of more than 1000 MOPS can be obtained.