We have campaigned with increasing irritation against all the companies that insist on hyping straightforward micros as superminis, and machines based on the very 16-bit 68000 and 68010 as 32-bit and a cautionary tale from Columbus, Ohio makes it clear that it is not only a feeble piece of self-aggrandisement that leaves people in the know despising companies that practice it, but it can also be very harmful to their customers: according to the Wall Street Journal, Columbus Instruments International Corp has been in dead bovver with the US Customs Service since June 1985 over its attempt to export some medical diagnostic systems to a show in Moscow, because the consignment included a Super Computer; the Super Computer happened to be nothing more than the name of a Far Eastern XT-alike – the XT is already sold by IBM in the Soviet Union from Super Computer Inc of Gardena, California – but would you expect some jobsworth in Washington to know the difference between a supercomputer and a Super Computer?
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