Name Evolution

Once upon a time, there was an Interrupt Controller. It did its job and all were happy… except for a few who were not. They wanted flexibility. They wanted a Programmable Interrupt Controller. And lo, their wishes were granted.

This PIC also did its job and all were happy… except the insatiable. "More features!", they cried. And it came to pass that an Advanced PIC was born. This APIC had a long life and much happiness existed in the land. Until…

"Extensions!", screamed the chorus. Thus was created the Extended APIC, or XAPIC. Finally, are we done? No! Displeasure begins to rumble again. "These extensions are not enough", the demanding engineers said, "we need more."

"Let us create an Extended XAPIC!" Immediately they sensed that this would be a stupid acronym. Ah yes, "XXAPIC" has a certain flair of redundancy. Let's not call it that.

After a little puzzling, some bright fellow noted that an "Ex-" prefix works as well as an "X" to indicate "extended". We can call it the Ex-XAPIC! Sounding just as silly as XXAPIC, but with the virtue of more letters, a handy hyphen, and a pun. For truly it is no longer a mere XAPIC. It has left that designation behind. It is an Ex-XAPIC.

(Don't ask about the XXX-APIC. This is a family blog.)

Lesson: Be careful with your acronyms lest something silly happen to them.