Nominal Semidestructor
<abuse> Slang for "National Semiconductor", found among other places in
the 4.3BSD networking sources. During the late 1970s to mid-1980s this company
marketed a series of microprocessors including the National Semiconductor 16000
and National Semiconductor 32000. At one point early in the great microprocessor
race, the specs on these chips made them look like serious competition for the
rising Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0 series. Unfortunately, the actual parts
were notoriously flaky and never implemented the full instruction set promised
in their literature, apparently because the company couldn't get any of the mask
steppings to work as designed. They eventually sank without trace, joining the
Zilog Z8000 and a few even more obscure also-rans in the graveyard of forgotten
microprocessors.
(1994-12-23)
Nearby terms:
NOL « NOMAD « NOMEX underwear « Nominal Semidestructor
» non-algorithmic procedure » nondeterminism »
nondeterministic
