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From: eclectic@onramp.net (ECC User)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp10
Subject: Re: Compuserve and the DECsystem-10
Date: 26 Sep 1995 10:46:59 GMT
Organization: Eclectic Computing Concepts
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In message <BILLW.95Sep25220358@puli.cisco.com>, billw@puli.cisco.com (William
) writes:

>I don't know if there was ever an F3.  The F4 was a faster F2, with
>ethernet and stuff.  I spent some time adding TCP to TENEX for use on
>F2s and F4s.
>
>The F5 was supposed to be a tiny version of the F4 (as in multiple F5s
>would fit in a 19" rack, or a single F5 would fit by your desk.)  I don't
>think the F5 ever made it to production, but it was supposed to show up
>in the early to mid 1980s.
>
>BillW

ARPA put up some money for Foonley to build F5s for SRI -- this at about the
time that the workstation was coming into being (Xerox
Dandelion/Dolphin/Dorado, Three Rivers Perq, BBN Jericho).  The thinking was
that they could be personal Lisp Machines that could also run other things.   I
piggy-backed on the buy to get a TENEX machine for what was at the time the
Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego, figuring it would be cheaper than all
the time we were buying from BBN and ISI.  It took forever (2 years?  trying to
preserve the money over government fiscal year boundaries), but we finally
received what was tagged a Foonley 4/5 in (I think) 1983.  It had, among other
interesting features, a memory-mapped graphics display which I don't think that
anyone ever used.

Foonley wasn't like DEC in terms of support -- while the Foonley had a built-in
telephone connection for remote diagnostics and microcode replacement, more
significant repairs involved getting someone to come down to San Diego from the
converted elementary school in Mountain View.  Fortunately, our system manager
had a nice sailboat, and the offer of a weekend on the water was frequently
sufficient to entice a one-day support visit.

Dan Lynch once looked at our machine room, holding the Foonley, two VAX
11/730s, one Perq, a BBN Bitgraph terminal and similar oddities and pronounced
it the greatest collection of bad choices he'd ever seen.  We somehow got work
done, however.  I'm glad we didn't show him the STARAN in the other building.

bob bechtel