TI manual naming conventions?
TI employee here. I went and dug up the naming scheme for literature numbers. It's pretty long, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the whole thing here, but I can give an overview and some examples. Credit to Zebonaut for getting a lot right without the benefit of insider info. :-)

The first three letters are the product classification. This normally indicates the product family, but is also used for translated documents. For example:

AME    Latin America
CZH    Czech
GER    German
JAJ    Japanese
RUS    Russian
ZHC    Chinese


Most of the remaining product classifications start with S, which I assume stands for "semiconductor". A notable exception is the DLP series of micromirror-based MEMS display devices:

DLP    Digital Light Processing


Educational Technology (the calculator group) doesn't have a classification. Their manuals don't seem to have lit numbers.

Within the semiconductor family, it looks like a mix of product types and acquired companies. The major groups are:

SBx    Burr-Brown
SCx    Mostly CMOS with what looks like early digital products
SDx    Standard logic and digital interfacing
SGx    Military
SLx    Linear and mixed-signal
SNx    National Semiconductor
SOx    Optoelectronics
SPx    Processors
SSx    Marketing, university, and lobbying documents
SWx    Wireless


The third letter gives the product type. For example, here's what's listed under SLx:

SLA    Data Acquisition, Data Converters, Multimedia, Video
SLB    Optoelectronics (TSL)
SLC    Linear Comparators
SLD    Display Drivers, Power ICs, Peripheral Drivers
SLE    MSDS Emerging Markets
SLF    Special Functions (TLS)
SLI    Intelligent Power and Power ICs
SLL    Line Circuits, Data Transmission (ALS/LBC/Interface), 1394
SLM    Mixed Signal Processor (TSS)
SLN    LinCMOS Products
SLO    Op Amps
SLP    Power (Transistors)
SLR    Peripheral Drivers
SLS    Sonar
SLT    Timers, Power Trends
SLU    Acquired Unitrode, Benchmarq Products
SLV    Voltage Regulators
SLW    Telecom
SLX    LinASICs
SLY    Mixed Signal and Analog Family
SLZ    Thin Shrink Small Outline (TSSOP) Packages


The fourth letter gives the document type. There's a lot of reuse here. I've listed the most popular types below. The formatting is weird because I copied it directly from the list.

xxxA    Application Notes,Chapter Extracts, Release Notes, Design Manuals, Designer's Handbooks, Primers, Design Considerations, Technical White Papers, System Block Diagrams,Contributed Articles
xxxC    Catalogs, Master Selection Guides, CD-ROM's, Diskettes, Software: TI device software, Software Support Packages &amp; Modules, Logic equation files to program TI hardware devices, Other: Image, screensaver, wallpaper, Software: CODEC
xxxM    Mini-Brochures, Slim Jims, IBIS Model, BSDL Model, Macromodels, TINA-TI Reference Designs, TINA-TI Spice Model, PSpice Model, HSpice Model, VerilogA Model, TISpice Model, VHDL Model, S-Parameter Model, Power Model, IBIS-SMI Model
xxxS    Data Sheets, Data Manuals on Single Products, MacroLibraries
xxxT    Direct Mail Materials, Product Bulletin, Technical Brief, Marketing Selection Guide
xxxU    Owners Manuals, Software Manuals, User's Guides, Reference Guides, Availability Guides, Getting Started, Installation, Technical Reference, Demo Board
xxxZ    Important Notice, Field Sales Office(FSO) Listing, OOPS Card, Manual Update Sheet,Inserts (Adam's note: This type includes errata sheets)


Short version: A for app notes, C for software, M for models, S for datasheets, T for promotional material, U for user's guides, and Z for errata.

After the first four letters there are three characters that identify the unique document. This can be either a number or a mix of letters and numbers. The last character is always a number. Letters are used when the classification/type runs out of three-digit numbers. As best I can tell, the numbers are assigned chronologically based on when the document is added to the system.

The last character is a letter that indicates the revision. It's blank for the first release. The next release is A, then B, and so forth. I found a couple documents in the database that had wrapped around to AA, but that's extremely rare.

Here's an example. The technical reference manual for one of our recent C2000 MCUs currently has literature number SPRUHM8E. This breaks down as follows:

SPR         Digital signal processors
   U        User's guide
    HM8     Document number
       E    Fifth revision after release


SLAA490 (Capacitive Touch Software Library Programmer's Guide) is:

SLA         Data acquisition, converters, multimedia, video
   A        Application note or manual that's not for an IC
    490     Document number (assigned in 2011 according to the database)
       _    Initial release


SLAU337 (430BOOST-SENSE1 - Capacitive Touch
BoosterPack for the LaunchPad User's Guide) is:

SLA         Data acquisition, converters, multimedia, video
   U        User's guide
    337     Document number (assigned in 2011 according to the database)
       _    Initial release


This system seems to have been around since at least the early 1990s, so there's some pretty old stuff in there. I found lit numbers for envelopes, paper newsletters, floppy disks... A lot of the categories probably aren't even used anymore. It's pretty complex, but that's what happens when a big company spends decades churning out documents.