Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

[drlegendre .]

I have my own ridiculous ad-hoc hypothesis on this..

Both names have a couple things in common - first, they do +not+ contain
the actual CPU model. This may have been to avoid marketplace confusion and
potential legal action from a outfit much bigger than Altair (Now who makes
the 8080 again? Intel or Altair??).

Secondly, the non-zero digits are in the same order in both model names -
680 (6800) and 8800 (8080). This most definitely does evoke the CPU model,
and is easily recalled. The decision to go with 8800 (vs. 8008) may have
been arbitrary, though "eighty-eighty" sounds a whole lot like
"eighty-eight". The options for the 6800-based machine were not limited -
other than 680, they had 6800 (sounds too much like 8800, though a case can
be made for it..) and things like 6080 which would be just kind of weird
(that's a well-known vacuum tube, btw).

It's also worth noting that the 680 is physically smaller than the 8800,
and the shorter three-digit model number seems to evoke a smaller product.

On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 6:06 PM, Sam O'nella <barythrin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 5:54 PM, js at cimmeri.com <js at cimmeri.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > On 12/17/2016 1:23 PM, Stephen Pereira wrote:
> >
> >> I was (finally) lucky enough to acquire an Altair 680 back in
> November...
> >>
> >
> > Is there any logic to the naming of these Altairs?   Wonder why it wasn't
> > "Altair 8080" and "Altair 6800".   8800 and 680 don't follow the same
> > pattern.
> >
> > ------
> >
> > Had MITS made other Altairs...
> >
> > Altair 8800 = 8080
> >        8850 = 8085
> >        8860 = 8086
> >        8880 = 8088
> >        8286 = 80286
> >        8386 = 80386
> >        680  = 6800
> >        680  = 6809
> >        680  = 68000
> >
> > ;-),
> >
> > - JS
> > ----------------------------
> >
> lol, I would love to hear that too if anyone knows any stories behind the
> naming. Used to hurt my head to remember that it was an 8800 not an 8080.
> I know the fairly well published story about the name Altair but companies
> and their model numbers are always odd.
>