Subscribe now

Letter: HAL's legacy

Published 19 May 2001

From Chris Cartledge

Microsoft does say that NT stands for New Technology but there is another
more persuasive derivation
(Feedback, 7 April).
Microsoft hired the architects
for Windows NT from Digital and these engineers wrote WNT as the nominative
successor to the Digital operating system VMS which they had previously worked
on.

In the same way, the name of the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey,
HAL, was supposedly derived from IBM by changing each letter to the preceding
letter in the alphabet.

C.Cartledge@sheffield.ac.uk

Issue no. 2291 published 19 May 2001

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop