"What to use in place of 586?"
Unreliable sources told me that the name "Pentium" was chosen in a
contest; what was second place??
It was said that Intel chose to not use "586", because
competitors were competing and/or cheating on the numbers
a 386 level chip being called "486xx", 486 level chips being called "586",
and 586 level chips being called "686"
. . . and "you can not "trademark" a number."
(sorry for an automotive analogy, but what about the Oldsmobile "442"?)
"Pentium" seemed to be safe from "look-alike"names/numbers.
BUT, they may not have noticed a serious risk on that.
Honeywell had purchased "Pentax" from Asahi.
If Honeywell wanted to jump into the fray, they could probably legally put
out a chip named "Pentaxium". Fortunately for Intel, Honeywell did not.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
