Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tank!mimsy!dftsrv!ames!killer!jolnet!tarkus!jcs
From: jcs@tarkus.UUCP (John C. Sucilla)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: Where did `3B2' come from?
Summary: This is probably correct
Message-ID: <352@tarkus.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jan 89 22:24:12 GMT
References: <1023@vsi.COM>
Reply-To: jcs@tarkus.UUCP (John C. Sucilla)
Distribution: comp
Organization: tarkus -- Calumet City, Il.
Lines: 17

In article <1023@vsi.COM> friedl@vsi.COM (Stephen J. Friedl) writes:
>This is probably a silly question, but where did the name `3B2'
>come from?  I've never figured it out, and I find it hard to believe
>that it was chosen at random.  Anybody know?

It all started way back when the 3B20D (Duplex) was first introduced as
the administration module for the 5ESS (tradmark, blah blah blah) Switch.
Western Electric switching system processors had names previously like
the 1A 1B 3A etc.  The 3B20D had every piece of hardware duplicated
and matching (stop n switch stuff) for reliability.  Then one day
they started splitting these machines in half and called them 3B20S
(Simplex) and verily they were general purpose computers.  When the
3B2 line was born I guess they just continued the tradition and lopped of
the 0 because it was like a little brother to the 3B20's.
-- 
jcs@tarkus.chi.il.us (John "C". Sucilla)
You have a better idea? Now's the time...