Nominal Semidestructor

Nominal Semidestructor n.  Soundalike slang for `National
   Semiconductor', found among other places in the Networking/2
   networking sources.  During the late 1970s to mid-1980s this
   company marketed a series of microprocessors including the NS16000
   and NS32000 and several variants.  At one point early in the great
   microprocessor race, the specs on these chips made them look like
   serious competition for the rising Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0
   series.  Unfortunately, the actual parts were notoriously flaky and
   never implemented the full instruction set promised in their
   literature, apparently because the company couldn't get any of the
   mask steppings to work as designed.  They eventually sank without
   trace, joining the Zilog Z8000 and a few even more obscure
   also-rans in the graveyard of forgotten microprocessors.  Compare
   {HP-SUX}, {AIDX}, {buglix}, {Macintrash}, {Telerat},
   {Open DeathTrap}, {ScumOS}, {sun-stools}.