Why chip names??

amiga_Forever · 08 March 2015, 10:59

Anyone know why the Amiga names were called: Paula, Angus, & Denise ?

Not how we look at PC's calling them sound blasters from Creative Labs, so why did Commodore name them as such?

Anyone know ?

Gzegzolka · 08 March 2015, 11:30

Commodore was sure that Atari would try spy on them, or other big company there. So they decide to name those chips by girls names rather than "chip-for-new-computer-that-do-graphics". When engines talk about amiga people who hear them think they talk about their wife or girlfriends.

Michael Sykes · 08 March 2015, 12:24

True.Wary of industrial espionage, the developers codenamed the chipset "Lorraine" during development. Named after an investors wife, iirc.
Amiga is spanish for girlfriend so giving the customchips female names is just consistency.
Paula for example has something like "CSG 391077-01 8364R7PL 5195 27" imprinted on top of the actual chip. But Paula sounds a 1000x better than a random number,don't you think.

Quazar · 08 March 2015, 15:09

It's a very easy way to reference chips, especially during development times. A bit of fun too! Rather than just referring to them as 'The Graphics Chip', 'The Sound Chip' etc...

I've done it myself with hardware that used a lot of programmable logic chips, having the source files under the chip names on the PC keeps everything clear to avoid confusion later.

Superman · 08 March 2015, 18:32

It's the names of girls the commodore boss was shagging at the time.

Predseda · 08 March 2015, 19:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superman

It's the names of girls the commodore boss was shagging at the time.

Errm, the same with Gary and Gayle?

Dunny · 08 March 2015, 19:23

It's used a lot. The ZXSpectrum ULA was called "Frank".

D.

Michael Sykes · 08 March 2015, 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superman

It's the names of girls the commodore boss was shagging at the time.

At the time they came up with the names the company was still named Hi-Toro.

Simmo76 · 08 March 2015, 21:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Sykes

True.Wary of industrial espionage, the developers codenamed the chipset "Lorraine" during development. Named after an investors wife, iirc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Sykes

At the time they came up with the names the company was still named Hi-Toro.

Michael Sykes is correct on both counts

To quote from 'The Amiga Book':
"The computer was codenamed Lorraine (after the wife of Hi-Toro's chief executive)"

pandy71 · 08 March 2015, 22:06

Also if you designing something and you dedicate lot of time and attention it is normal that you start personalize (anthropomorphism or personification) this - common practice for humans - we always trying to attach human emotion and behavior to animals or things...
At least i like to thing that this is alive thing (my projects)...

adrdesign · 08 March 2015, 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Sykes

True.Wary of industrial espionage, the developers codenamed the chipset "Lorraine" during development. Named after an investors wife, iirc.
Amiga is spanish for girlfriend so giving the customchips female names is just consistency.
Paula for example has something like "CSG 391077-01 8364R7PL 5195 27" imprinted on top of the actual chip. But Paula sounds a 1000x better than a random number,don't you think.

Just for the record: "Amiga" is the female noun for "friend", as "amigo" is the male form. Today some people uses it meaning a "very new or casual relationship", but never means "girlfriend".

Michael Sykes · 08 March 2015, 22:57

My excuse is that I don't speak spanish. But thanks for the enlightenment.
My native language is not that precise, when it come to the word girlfriend.
The german translation can mean both and many more....

Jope · 09 March 2015, 09:30

Agnus, Paula, Denise were named by the original Amiga team.

The Agnus is named after the lamb of god, Agnus Dei. Jay Miner was a religious man.

Paula was originally called Portia (PORTs and Audio). Denise was Daphne, probably not a backronym.

GARY (Gate ARraY) was named by Commodore guys, it collected together all the logic gates from the A1000 motherboard into one space/money saving custom chip.

And so on, and so on.

gimbal · 09 March 2015, 12:45

Its a good practice to give "human names" to IT things. For example in a programming environment if you work with servers its not really a good idea to use technical names; its better to just use "fun" names such as movie entities. Things like "Matrix" or "Trinity".

"Yeah upload it to the Matrix" sounds so much more recognizable than "Upload it to DEV01" and is easier picked up by non-IT people.

I can believe the Amiga chipset names to have been chosen for the reasons listed above, but I also believe they were chosen to allow regular non-IT Amiga users to identify with them as well.

Steve · 09 March 2015, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

Agnus, Paula, Denise were named by the original Amiga team.

The Agnus is named after the lamb of god, Agnus Dei. Jay Miner was a religious man.

Paula was originally called Portia (PORTs and Audio). Denise was Daphne, probably not a backronym.

GARY (Gate ARraY) was named by Commodore guys, it collected together all the logic gates from the A1000 motherboard into one space/money saving custom chip.

And so on, and so on.

Interesting...

So I wonder where the names 'Alice' and 'Lisa' came from for the AGA chipset. Anyone know?

Mrs Beanbag · 09 March 2015, 14:02

i used to have Enterprise 128 computer, it had chips called Nick and Dave.

C64 of course, had Vic and Sid!

Vot · 09 March 2015, 14:21

The a1200 and a600 boards themselves were named after b-52's songs june bug and channel z

Michael Sykes · 09 March 2015, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vot

The a1200 and a600 boards themselves were named after b-52's songs june bug and channel z

The prototype bords of the 600 and 1200....
As far as I know only the (early) A500 consumer bords are labled 'rock lobster' after the B52's song.

Simmo76 · 09 March 2015, 15:31

Taken from:
http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/b52board.html

Since the A500 was launched many have wondered about the mysterious messages that have appeared on the Amiga motherboards. Were they a secret code passed to the Amiga disciples or meaningless jibberish? The truth was somewhere in between - the mysterious words were song titles. The tradition was started by George Robbins - the man responsible for most of the low end Amiga systems and continued by other Commodore employees. Robbin's handiwork was immediately recognisable by the B52's song title. His first Amiga project - the A500 - was originally developed under the working title of B52 and the trend continued to four subsequent models:
A500 "Rock Lobster"
A600 "Junebug"
A1200 "Channel Z"
A590 "Party Mix", the front LED's called Fred and Wilma

The tradition was continued by the designers of the CD32 who added the word "Spellbound" onto the motherboard. This broke away from the B52's and was obviously added by a different person. Spellbound is a song by Siouxsie and the Banshees

I remember reading about the B52s - Rock Lobster song somewhere many years ago, but the rest is new to me!

Michael Sykes · 09 March 2015, 15:42

Wacky-pedia told me it was only a codename during production.
Maybe it was a bit misleading...
But after using a simple screwdriver I now know you are right Sir.
Had the damm thing open dozens of times and didn't remember that.
How embarrassing!

If we where yakuza it would cost me my left pinky....

08 March 2015, 10:59	#1
amiga_Forever Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: kkhkj Posts: 323	Why chip names?? Anyone know why the Amiga names were called: Paula, Angus, & Denise ? Not how we look at PC's calling them sound blasters from Creative Labs, so why did Commodore name them as such? Anyone know ?

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08 March 2015, 11:30	#2
Gzegzolka Registered User Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Warszawa / Polska Posts: 1,860	Commodore was sure that Atari would try spy on them, or other big company there. So they decide to name those chips by girls names rather than "chip-for-new-computer-that-do-graphics". When engines talk about amiga people who hear them think they talk about their wife or girlfriends.

08 March 2015, 12:24	#3
Michael Sykes WinUAE end user Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Bremen Age: 44 Posts: 649	True.Wary of industrial espionage, the developers codenamed the chipset "Lorraine" during development. Named after an investors wife, iirc. Amiga is spanish for girlfriend so giving the customchips female names is just consistency. Paula for example has something like "CSG 391077-01 8364R7PL 5195 27" imprinted on top of the actual chip. But Paula sounds a 1000x better than a random number,don't you think.

08 March 2015, 15:09	#4
Quazar Registered User Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Scotland Posts: 41	It's a very easy way to reference chips, especially during development times. A bit of fun too! Rather than just referring to them as 'The Graphics Chip', 'The Sound Chip' etc... I've done it myself with hardware that used a lot of programmable logic chips, having the source files under the chip names on the PC keeps everything clear to avoid confusion later.

08 March 2015, 18:32	#5
Superman Super Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Wakefield Age: 48 Posts: 1,334	It's the names of girls the commodore boss was shagging at the time.

08 March 2015, 19:23	#7
Dunny Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Scunthorpe/United Kingdom Posts: 2,047	It's used a lot. The ZXSpectrum ULA was called "Frank". D.

08 March 2015, 22:06	#10
pandy71 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: PL? Posts: 2,816	Also if you designing something and you dedicate lot of time and attention it is normal that you start personalize (anthropomorphism or personification) this - common practice for humans - we always trying to attach human emotion and behavior to animals or things... At least i like to thing that this is alive thing (my projects)...

08 March 2015, 22:57	#12
Michael Sykes WinUAE end user Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Bremen Age: 44 Posts: 649	My excuse is that I don't speak spanish. But thanks for the enlightenment. My native language is not that precise, when it come to the word girlfriend. The german translation can mean both and many more....

09 March 2015, 09:30	#13
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,879	Agnus, Paula, Denise were named by the original Amiga team. The Agnus is named after the lamb of god, Agnus Dei. Jay Miner was a religious man. Paula was originally called Portia (PORTs and Audio). Denise was Daphne, probably not a backronym. GARY (Gate ARraY) was named by Commodore guys, it collected together all the logic gates from the A1000 motherboard into one space/money saving custom chip. And so on, and so on.

09 March 2015, 12:45	#14
gimbal cheeky scoundrel Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Spijkenisse/Netherlands Age: 42 Posts: 6,946	Its a good practice to give "human names" to IT things. For example in a programming environment if you work with servers its not really a good idea to use technical names; its better to just use "fun" names such as movie entities. Things like "Matrix" or "Trinity". "Yeah upload it to the Matrix" sounds so much more recognizable than "Upload it to DEV01" and is easier picked up by non-IT people. I can believe the Amiga chipset names to have been chosen for the reasons listed above, but I also believe they were chosen to allow regular non-IT Amiga users to identify with them as well.

09 March 2015, 14:02	#16
Mrs Beanbag Glastonbridge Software Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Edinburgh/Scotland Posts: 2,243	i used to have Enterprise 128 computer, it had chips called Nick and Dave. C64 of course, had Vic and Sid!

09 March 2015, 14:21	#17
Vot Registered User Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Australia Posts: 651	The a1200 and a600 boards themselves were named after b-52's songs june bug and channel z

09 March 2015, 15:31	#19
Simmo76 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Derby, UK Age: 47 Posts: 234	Taken from: http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/b52board.html Since the A500 was launched many have wondered about the mysterious messages that have appeared on the Amiga motherboards. Were they a secret code passed to the Amiga disciples or meaningless jibberish? The truth was somewhere in between - the mysterious words were song titles. The tradition was started by George Robbins - the man responsible for most of the low end Amiga systems and continued by other Commodore employees. Robbin's handiwork was immediately recognisable by the B52's song title. His first Amiga project - the A500 - was originally developed under the working title of B52 and the trend continued to four subsequent models: A500 "Rock Lobster" A600 "Junebug" A1200 "Channel Z" A590 "Party Mix", the front LED's called Fred and Wilma The tradition was continued by the designers of the CD32 who added the word "Spellbound" onto the motherboard. This broke away from the B52's and was obviously added by a different person. Spellbound is a song by Siouxsie and the Banshees I remember reading about the B52s - Rock Lobster song somewhere many years ago, but the rest is new to me!

09 March 2015, 15:42	#20
Michael Sykes WinUAE end user Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Bremen Age: 44 Posts: 649	Wacky-pedia told me it was only a codename during production. Maybe it was a bit misleading... But after using a simple screwdriver I now know you are right Sir. Had the damm thing open dozens of times and didn't remember that. How embarrassing! If we where yakuza it would cost me my left pinky....

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