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DEC is a cool name. Digital Equipment, serious stuff. Sadly the era of three punchy letter names is over. What have we got now? “Apple” (random word, even wors
by bee_rider 2y ago
DEC is a cool name. Digital Equipment, serious stuff. Sadly the era of three punchy letter names is over. What have we got now?
“Apple” (random word, even worse, it is a type of plant or something), “Facebook” (like a type of yearbook?) “Google” (sounds like they make candy or something), or “Intel” (who knows? -tel is just what companies ended their names with in the 80’s and 90’s).
DEC. What do they make? Equipment. What kind? Digital.
IBM would be good if the middle word wasn’t “business.” Business? Eh. Lame. The business is an aside, it is here to justify the machines. E, because Equipment is solid and physical.
ARM? Looks good at first. But then you find out… the A stands for Acorn. What the hell are we doing here, gardening? No. Terrible. We want D, for Digital, because we’re in the figure, the era of ones and zeros, not acorns.
AMD? Actually that name is OK as well.
- fragmede 2y agoBut who doesn't make digital equipment these days? Even tractors and other farming equipment is chock full of digital equipment. And what kind of device isn't or has some sort of advanced micro device in it? Those companies might as just well merge into one megacorp named Stuff, for all it really means, if we're going off of company names being useful. something something computer science; naming things.
- robertlagrant 2y agoYou wouldn't like my old employer[0], then. [0] https://softwareag.com https://softwareag.com
- fragmede 2y agooh man, that's awesome!
- lsllc 2y agoAlthough Acorn designed the ARM chip in 1983 as the Acorn RISC Machine, in 1990 it was changed to Advanced RISC Machine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Holdings#Name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Holdings#Name
- bee_rider 2y agoBah, they can change the official name, but we know the truth. Anyway, they don’t sell machines. They sell designs.
- acheron 2y agoThey can’t do that, no matter how much corporations try.
- mark_undoio 2y agoI quite like that Acorn still sort-of has that reference living on in the modern world. Acorn is a local company for me - a load of my colleagues / contacts through the local tech scene worked there. It's also a company whose products I originally saw in school when I was about 8 years old - they were the fancy computers, the ones kids like me weren't allowed to mess with.
- criddell 2y agoAre you suggesting DRM would be a better name than ARM?
- rbanffy 2y agoART, for Advanced RISC Technology ;-) We all knew RISC technology was going to change everything.
- fredoralive 2y agoAcorn took that acronym as well with an Acorn RISC Technologies division near the end: https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/ART/ART.html.orig https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/ART/A...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bregma 2y agoMaybe DRE (Digital RISC Equipment)? Of course, if you're using the whole ARM a DRE might get uncomfortable.
- bee_rider 2y agoEh, they don’t even sell machines anyway? They sell chip designs. Maybe they should be called something like “RISC Intellectual Property.” Then they can start selling a flagship chip, call the One. The ad copy writes itself practically. Announce your presence: RIP One.
- wbl 2y agoChicago Bridge and Iron. It's not in Chicago, doesn't make bridges, and doesn't use iron.
- wglb 2y agoOk, you got me to look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Bridge_%26_Iron_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Bridge_%26_Iron_Compan...
- MisterTea 2y agoIndeed, DEC was a cool name. I also loved the simple yet recognizable digital logo. Intel - I think tel would invoke tele like telephone or television so maybe a phone company or television studio. In an alternate world: "Get on the air with Intel - the intelligent television company!" IBM - Incredibly Bitchin Machines
- II2II 2y agoIgnoring the three letter bit, Intel ought to be a pretty good machine by your measures: Integrated electronics. ARM reformed itself, and is Advanced RISC Machine. I would argue that DEC and ARM are much more punchy than IBM and AMD. At least they are pronounced as single syllables, while the latter are read/spoken as TLAs. If your going to go to that much effort to pronounce it, you may as well suggest that Microsoft is a good name. But if you really want a punchy name, something that will DEC them with the thing at the end of your ARM, well, you may as well go with a four letter acronym: FIST. I have yet to figure out what the F should stand for, but the rest is clearly Integrated Semiconductor Technologies.
- bee_rider 2y agoFully Integrated Semiconductor Technologies? That is a good point about pronouncing the name as a single word instead of three letters. Although, I still think DEC is better than ARM. Ending on the hard C adds to the oomph.
- Projectiboga 2y agoFairchild Integrated Semiconductor Technologies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor
- nbernard 2y agoWhat do you think of IDR, for Intergalactic Digital Research (which later dropped the 'I') ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Research
- bux93 2y agoTMC (Thinking Machines Corporation) was ahead of its time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Machines_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Machines_Corporation
- adrian_b 2y agoA plausible theory is that "IBM" has been coined in such a way so that each letter was superior to the corresponding letter from "NCR", its main competitor in the past. National => International Cash => Business Register => Machines So each word in IBM was more generic and more widely encompassing than its correspondent in NCR.
- singleshot_ 2y agoHAL would like a word…
- martinpw 2y agoSilicon Graphics was a great company name. With a great (initial) logo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics#/media/File:Silicon_Graphics_logo.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics#/media/File:S...