NT Not 'New Technology'

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Ever wondered what the NT in Windows NT stood for...

During a trip to Microsoft's Redmond campus, Paul Thurrott had the opportunity to meet with Mark Lucovsky, one of the original architects of NT.

During their long discussion about the development and evolution of NT, one of the more fascinating tidbits Mark revealed was that NT does not, in fact, stand for "New Technology," as documented in books such as "Showstoppers" and "Inside Windows NT."

Instead, the name comes from the earliest days of the product's development, when it was targeted at the Intel i860, a RISC processor. In those days, Intel's chip was behind schedule, so Microsoft had to use an i860 emulator called the N10.

NT was so named because it worked on the "N-Ten."

So there you go...

News source: WinInformant

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#1 creamhackered on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:02

I knew this anyway

(1 reply) #2 trashpickinman on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:02

Interesting never heard that before, always was taught New Technology.

#2.1 Edge on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:17

Myself included.

#3 silly_walk on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:05

Yeah, by Microsoft teachers, guess they should all be stripped of their certs now. 8 years later they decide to clear the air?

#4 primortal on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:07

intereseting, old whitepapers (I wish I still had it) said it was 'new technology', marketing people mush have come up with the term.

#5 dismuter on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:09

So when it says Built on NT Technology it's not a pleonasm after all

#6 xpablo on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:10

It was always understood that NT stood for New Technology. So in like 10yrs from now MS will come out saying that XP does NOT mean Experience.

#7 Jerichohol on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:18

What XP = experience ????????????

(1 reply) #8 xStainDx on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:26

No In 10 Years They'll Finally Come out and admit that after all the patching, after all ther service packs, after all the MS Technet Security Bulletins.... That XP really stood for eXtra Problems...

#8.1 Neobond on 24 Jan 2003 - 23:30

LMAO thats a good one

#9 leebobs on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:27

I always thought it was Nit wiT

#10 Panorama on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:35

Lol! Well it's about time they said something about NT. As for XP... eXtra Problems sounds pretty funny.

#11 briangw on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:44

That goes against everything they taught us in Networking classes.

#12 me101 on 24 Jan 2003 - 20:51

Here are some links via google that seems to "confirm" what NT means... [url]http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix-win2000/invitedtalks/lucovsky_html/tsld006.htm[/url] which is a quote of... [url]http://www.seanm.ca:70/h/nerd/nt-software-eng.html[/url], rather EXCELLENT reading...

#13 Eric Ferleman on 24 Jan 2003 - 21:15

I still like asking newbies if Windows XP is built on NT Technology, amusing to hear them answer.

#14 icedevil on 24 Jan 2003 - 21:57

i thought is was a play on letters that created the "Windows NT" name example servers were once ran on VAX VMS, now if you shift all the letters in "VMS" to the next letter in the alphabet you get this: V->W, M->N, S->T. which spells WNT, or Windows NT

#15 tayldavi on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:13

Found this a long time ago at ntfaq.com (now win2000faq.com) [url=http://www.windows2000faq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13461]http://www.windows2000faq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13461[/url] NT actually stands for Northern Telecom but Microsoft licensed it and in the Windows sense stands for New Technology. Its also interesting to note its heritage RSX -> VMS -> ELN -> NT all major designs of David Cutler Also VMS +1 letter = WNT (Windows NT) :-) (aka HAL and IBM in 2001) Another theory is that the NT acronym orginally came from the Engineers working on it. The acronym stands for N-Ten, the code name for the i860 chip that NT was being tested on.

#16 ThunderRiver on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:22

Yeah that makes a lot of sense now... Ever wonder how stupid it is when you see Microsoft says Windows NT New Technology? (cuz it seems to be redundant..) Guess not anymore

#17 carlito on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:25

for somereason i thought that the NT stood for Networking or something like that

#18 willywonka69 on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:27

LMAO all this time

(1 reply) #19 AshMan on 24 Jan 2003 - 22:41

We had to wait 11 years to learn that! I wonder what they will announce in 2011 when they tell us the true meaning of ME and also in 2012 when they tell us what XP really means. [img]http://homepage.mac.com/giantmike/pics/cement.jpg[/img]

#19.1 Angel Blue01 on 25 Jan 2003 - 00:35

[neoquote=#19.0 by AshMan][img]http://homepage.mac.com/giantmike/pics/cement.jpg[/img][/neoquote] ROTFL!

(1 reply) #20 cannhawk on 25 Jan 2003 - 01:18

ROFL till my side hurt Nice work send it to Bill G

#20.1 JaggedFlame on 25 Jan 2003 - 05:24

Actually, I think a lot of Microsoft employees had that posted up on their cubicle walls.

#21 prell on 25 Jan 2003 - 02:55

yea this is one of those goofy things.. everyone SWEARS "NT" stands for [whatever they heard it stands for]. I've heard at least five or six different names from at least as many people. I hope this one is actually right!

#22 SMG on 25 Jan 2003 - 03:47

I still can't understand how XP stands for eXPeriance, that's just bad grammar, surely there is another meaning.

#23 hardgiant on 25 Jan 2003 - 23:48

XP stands for Xtra Poor

#24 Space Guy on 26 Jan 2003 - 06:26

now the "Based on NT Technology" makes sense..

#25 kal-ky on 26 Jan 2003 - 15:21

And I always thought NT stood for Not Today

#26 KayMan2K on 12 Feb 2003 - 05:11

Easy, XP means CrossOver (X) Platform since it was meant to crossover from DOS crap 9x to NT. ME = millenium edition and just released to make companies develop driver for XP, it is shit. CE = compact edition.

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