Talk:Inmos

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This needs investigating... INMOS was definitely owned by Thorn-EMI in the mid 80s (it was part of Thorn-EMI from 85 to 87 when I worked for another part of Thorn-EMI, certainly).

Indeed, see:

Then Thorn EMI, in 1984, made an offer that not only solved the Government’s problem of what to do with Inmos, but gave them a £30 million profit on their £65 million investment and took £35 million of loan guarantees (secured on highly in-demand chip-making equipment) from the public books. http://www.cieonline.co.uk/cie2/articlen.asp?pid=1674&id=17748 81.86.144.210 10:28, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the article mentions this (albeit under "Products"). Letdorf 16:52, 8 August 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Also--I picked a girl up from INMOS, "Officer and Gentleman" style, on her last day of work, before I married her. INMOS was nowhere close to Cheyanne Mountain, unless you think "close" means within 15 miles. The INMOS chip foundary was out on I-25.

INMOS or Inmos?[edit]

I disagree with the recent renaming of this article; in all the official INMOS documentation I have, the name of the company is always presented in uppercase ("INMOS") - despite the logo using an all-lowercase form. Letdorf (talk) 20:56, 12 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

It is possible you are confusing a logo/trarmark and the official company name. Quite often company names are capitalized, TO SCREAM AND SHOUT IN YOUR FACE, you know. I moved the page after someone tried to do it in an incorrect way by cut'n'paste. I double-checked with a couple of references given in the article, and saw nothing wrong. If you can provide convincing proof that the company was indeed called as INMOS (stationary samples not enough), then I will happily rename it back. But I don't really see any big deal here. - Altenmann >t 00:29, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I realise it wasn't your idea to rename this article in the first place, and thanks for spotting the cut'n'paste. However, in the UK, company names registered at Companies House are case-insensitive (all names are listed in all-uppercase) so it is up to individual companies to define what the "official" presentation of their name should be. Hence, company stationery is (IMHO) actually a reliable source for determining the official written form of the company's name. This is an example of an INMOS document - note the boilerplate text giving the company name as "INMOS Limited". Letdorf (talk) 12:53, 14 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

I beg to disagree here. I have plenty of manuals on my bookshelf with company names all-caps, which are nevertheless commonly written lower case on genetral texts. For example: [1]:

CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Still, the company is commonly referred to as Cadence Design Systems.

Same with Meta Software, which wrote META SOFTWARE in its user manual, &c.&c. Therefore I still have no definite opinion here. - Altenmann >t 16:51, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the "Exact Name of Registrant" on that SEC form is obviously a case-insensitve all-caps presentation used for registration purposes, similar to the Companies House convention. I agree there's not much excuse to use uppercase for dictionary words like "Design" or "Software", however, INMOS is a quasi-acronym. I think the fact that INMOS literature uses the form "INMOS Limited" and not "INMOS LIMITED" (or "Inmos Limited") indicates that they intended the uppercase form to be used in all contexts (logo notwithstanding). Letdorf (talk) 17:28, 14 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Well I believe Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks) is quite clear, "Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization rules even if the trademark owner considers nonstandard formatting "official": avoid: REALTOR®, TIME, KISS. Instead, use: Realtor, Time, Kiss". This applies to IMNOS the same as TIME. Seth Whales (talk) 19:44, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Like I said above, Realtor, Time and Kiss are all words, but INMOS is an acronym (derived from "International Metal Oxide Semiconductors" [2]), and it is common practice to write these in uppercase. Letdorf (talk) 23:18, 14 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

So too is Intel Corporation..."Integrated Electronics Corporation".Seth Whales (talk) 08:09, 16 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And where does it state that "Intel" is an acronym? Is "Accenture" (from "Accent on the future") an acronym? Of course not. Some marketing firm thought it was cool to pick two bits from a phrase and stick them together. If INMOS' legal name is INMOS Limited, then it is INMOS Limited. Perhaps I should also point out that my Cadence software also says "CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS" -- on the license agreement, which is capitalized for legal reasons, I believe, like the rest of the text. Rilak (talk) 08:54, 16 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

May I also point out that the company was always known as INMOS too? Rilak (talk) 15:35, 15 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The two pieces of evidence that the lower case Inmos is correct is simple...see the logo File:Inmos logo.gif and also the employees website www.inmos.com. they have not used INMOS anywhere on the website. If the former employees don't use capitals, and the logo is clearly in lower case, what is the discussion about? Seth Whales (talk) 18:24, 15 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Logos don't really prove anything about how companies present their name in a textual context. The Texas Instruments logo incorporates a lowercase "t" and a lowercase "i", but they call themselves "TI", not "ti"; Silicon Graphics have a logo based on the letters "sgi", but they use "SGI" in text. And yes, many INMOS employees referred to their company as "Inmos": you can't expect everyone to follow corporate identity guidelines to the letter all the time. Letdorf (talk) 23:43, 15 May 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Hewlett-Packard's logo is also in lower case: "hp". But obviously it is an acronym for "Hewlett-Packard" so to follow proper English capitalization rules, everyone refers to them as HP. If you want examples of how unreliable it is to go to a company's website and find random examples, I believe at one time, HP called themselves "hewlett-packard company". It was only in situations where they were legally required to state their legal name that they used "Hewlett-Packard Company". INMOS is an acronym, as Letdorf has explained. So I ask, what is the discussion about? Rilak (talk) 06:46, 16 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]