Motherboard (Was: The Burroughs B5900 and E-Mode

[Fred Cisin]

>> Wasn't the B5900 from 1980?
On Thu, 15 Oct 2015, Mark Linimon wrote:
> Hmm.  I guess my mind put "B5500" for "B5900".

Yeah, that would make a difference.
Wikipedia (not necessarily reliable) lists the B5500 at 1964,
and the B5900 in 1980.

OED researchers found published use of "motherboard" in 1971, but no idea 
how long it had been used as a term before that written reference.  So, 
B5500 could be before "motherboard" was a term.  Although, I remember a 
mention of it in conversation in 1967.
Much like the common usage of "bug" LONG before Grace Hopper used the 
common term in a log, "inventing the term".
OTOH, renaming "Altair Bus" to "S100" happened over a few months.

Some used "motherboard" to refer to a simple set of multiple connectors, 
such as S100,
whereas some will only use it if it has significant circuitry on it,
not just termination.


--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com