(from
http://www.voti.nl/swp)
A long, long time ago (when computer chips died when a cat came near on a dry day) General Instruments produced a chip called the PIC1650, described as a
Programmable
Intelligent
Computer. This chip is the mother of all PIC chips, functionally close to the current 16C54. It was intended as a peripheral for their CP1600 microprocessor. Maybe that is why most people think PIC stands for
Peripheral
Interface
Controller. As far as I know Microchip has never used PIC as an abbreviation, just as PIC. And recently Microchip has started calling its PICs microcontrollers PICmicro MCU's. Maybe they heard that PIC sounds like the Dutch word for dick and wanted to spare me the frowns from Dutch readers.
PIC is also the abbreviation of
Peripheral
Interrupt
Controller - but that's an entirey different story.