This article compares CHERI to an 80's computer, the Rational R1000 (which I'm glad to know of). It's worth noting that CHERI's main idea was explored in the 70's by the CAP computer[1]. CAP and CHERI are both projects of the University of Cambridge's Computer Lab. It's fairly clear that CAP inspired CHERI.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_computer