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From: prune@myrddyn.hf.intel.com.ogi.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: Re: 80960KA and KB
Message-ID: <902@gandalf.littlei.UUCP>
Date: 12 Mar 90 21:56:59 GMT
References: <3430002@col.hp.com> <473@donk.UUCP>
Sender: news@littlei.UUCP
Reply-To: prune@myrddyn.hf.intel.com (Prune Wickart)
Organization: Intel Corp., IMSO UNIX Development, Hillsboro, OR
Lines: 39

In article <3430002@col.hp.com> friedman@col.hp.com (John Friedman) writes:
> What does BiiN mean?

   BiiN corporation was a joint venture of Intel Corp. and Siemens Akt. built
to finish development and exploit the technology produced by their in-house
cooperative Gemini project.  The P7 chip from this project is the parent of the
entire i80960 microprocessor (TM) family.
   The Gemini project hired an independent marketing organization to find a name
for this new venture.  "BiiN" was chosen because it is short, distinctive, is
pronounced like the first part of "binary", and incorporates a sequence that is
susceptible to trademarking, the double-i.  One of the jokes at the company's
founding was that we would soon file suit against the 50th state.
   It is quite normal to ask the derivation of the name, but the BiiN upper
management declined to proffer anything for which BiiN is an acronym.  I and
many other people warned them that if they didn't come up with one, there would
be several dozen very soon, and those would not be complimentary.  Upper mgt.
maintained that "BiiN" didn't stand for anything.  Upper mgt. lost on that one.
I will not darken the reputation of an excellent state-of-the-art operating
system and a well-designed chip by repeating those names here (besides, they're
not quite good enough for rec.humor.funny).
   BiiN finally diid late last year (siigh).  Requiesce in Pacem.

jerry@orion1.hf.intel.com (Jerry Gaiser) replied:
> The same thing that XEROX means. Nothing. Just a very expensive name.

   Not quite, Jerry: Xerox (TM) is derived from the word "xerography", from the
Greek roots for "dry" and "writing".  The process was developed in Astoria, OR
(at the mouth of the Columbia River) about 50 years ago (October, 1938 ?).
Many corporate names today are picked for pure marketing value (such as one of
the early ones, Kodak), but "Xerox" isn't one of them.
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