View source for Company:Foonly

{{Short description|Computer company}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Foonly, Inc.
| logo             = Foonly wordmark.svg
| type             = [[Finance:Privately held company|Private]]
| traded_as        = 
| genre            = 
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1976|06|07}}<ref name="corporates">{{cite web| url = https://corporateswiki.com/ca/biz/C0782872/foonly-inc| title = Corporates Wiki, Foonly entry}}</ref>
| founder          = Dave W Poole<ref name="hackers" />
| location_city    = Mountain View, California<ref>{{cite web |url = https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c53e/302b6c3738891f794c0f5a9956695cacbf5c.pdf |title = Computing facilities for AI, 1981 |s2cid = 17838082 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715011809/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c53e/302b6c3738891f794c0f5a9956695cacbf5c.pdf |archive-date=15 July 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| location_country = United States
| location         = 
| key_people       = 
| products         = [[Mainframe computer|Mainframes]]<br />[[Computer hardware]]<br />[[Software|Computer software]]
| fate             = Dissolved
| dissolved        = {{End date|1989|04|19}}<ref name="corporates" />
| footnotes        = 
}}

'''Foonly Inc.''' was an American [[Computer|computer]] company formed by Dave Poole<ref name="hackers">{{cite web |last=Raymond |first=Eric. S |last2=Steele |first2=Guy L. |title='Foonly n.': in The New Hacker's Dictionary |url=http://hackersdictionary.com/html/entry/Foonly.html |website=hackersdictionary.com}}</ref> in 1976,<ref name="F2">{{cite web |title=Foonly F2 Brochure, 1981 |url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/foonly/F2_Brochure.pdf |website=bitsavers.trailing-edge.com}}</ref> that produced a series of DEC [[Engineering:PDP-10|PDP-10]] compatible [[Mainframe computer|mainframe]] computers, named ''Foonly F1'' to ''Foonly F5''.<ref name="overview">{{Cite web |last=Mountain View |title=Foonly Model Fx Computer Family Product Review |url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/foonly/Foonly_Product_Overview.pdf |access-date=25 January 2024 |website=bitsavers.trailing-edge.com}}</ref>

The first and most famous Foonly machine, the ''F1'', was the computer used by [[Company:Information International, Inc.|Triple-I]] to create some of the [[Computer-generated imagery|computer-generated imagery]] in the 1982 film ''Tron''.<ref name="hackers" />

==History==
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) began to study the building of a new computer to replace their ''DEC PDP-10 KA10'', by a far more powerful machine, with a funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).<ref name="hackers" /> This project was named "''Super-Foonly''", and was developed by a team led by Phil Petit, Jack Holloway, and Dave Poole.<ref name="hackers" /><ref name="dyer">{{cite web |last=Dayer |first=Dave |title=Dave Dayer, one of the ''F1'' designers, about Foonly |url=http://pdp10.nocrew.org/cpu/ddyer.html |access-date=25 January 2024 |website=pdp10.nocrew.org}}</ref> The name itself came from FOO NLI, an error message emitted by a PDP-10 assembler at SAIL meaning "FOO is Not a Legal Identifier".<ref>{{cite web |title=Foonly |url=http://www.fact-index.com/f/fo/foonly.html |website=fact-index.com}}</ref> In 1974, DARPA cut the funding, and a large part of the team went to [[Company:Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] to develop the ''PDP-10 model KL10'', based on the ''Super-Foonly project''.<ref name="hackers" />

But Dave Poole, with Phil Petit and Jack Holloway, preferred to found the Foonly Company in 1976,<ref name="F2" /> to try to build a series of computers based on the ''Super-Foonly project''.

During the early 1980s, after the releasing of their first and only F1, Foonly built and sold some F2, F4 and F5 low cost DEC [[Engineering:PDP-10|PDP-10]] compatible machines.<ref name="F2" /><ref name="hackers" /><ref name="overview" />

In 1983, after the cancellation of the [[Engineering:Jupiter project|Jupiter project]], Foonly tried to propose a new ''Foonly F1'', but it was eclipsed by the [[Company:Systems Concepts|''SC Group'']] company and their ''Mars project'', and the company never quite recovered, shutting down in 1989.<ref name="hackers" />

==Computers==
===List of models===
{{Infobox supercomputer
| name         = Foonly F1
| image        = 
| caption      = 
| manufacturer = Foonly Inc.
| designer     = Dave Poole<ref name="hackers" />
| release date = 1978<ref name="F2" />
| units sold   = 1<ref name="hackers" />
| price        = $700,000<ref name="overview" />
| dimensions   = 
| weight       = -
| power        = 5 [[Watt#Kilowatt|kW]]<ref name="overview" />
| voltage      = 110/220V
| front-end    = DEC PDP-10 KA10
| os           = FOONEX<ref name="overview" />
| cpu          = [[36-bit|36-bit]] processor
| frequency    = 11.1 MHz<ref name="overview" />
| memory       = Up to 18 MB (4096 x 36 bits)<ref name="overview" />
| storage      = 
| mips         = 4.5 MIPS<ref name="overview" />
| flops        = 
| successor    = 
| predecessor  = 
}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Model       !!MIPS  !!Word Size!!Frequency    !!Memory               !!Price    !!Bays !!Power              
|-
|Foonly F1  ||4.5 MIPS  ||36 bits  ||11.1 [[Hertz#SI multiples|MHz]] ||18 [[Megabyte|MB]]  || $700&nbsp;000 || 4    || 5 [[Watt#Kilowatt|kW]] 
|-
|Foonly F2  ||0.5 MIPS  ||36 bits  ||2.8&nbsp;MHz  ||4.5 MB || $150&nbsp;000 || 1    || 0.5&nbsp;kW
|-
|Foonly F4  ||1.4 MIPS  ||36 bits  ||8&nbsp;MHz    || 9 MB || $300&nbsp;000 || 1    || 1&nbsp;kW 
|-
|Foonly F4B ||1.8 MIPS  ||36 bits  ||8&nbsp;MHz    || 9 MB || $350&nbsp;000 || 1    || 1.5&nbsp;kW 
|-
|Foonly F5  ||0.3 MIPS  ||36 bits  ||3.3&nbsp;MHz  || 2.25 MB || $80&nbsp;000  || 0.5  || 0.8&nbsp;kW 
|}

===The Foonly F1===
The Foonly F1 was the first and most powerful Foonly computer, but also the only one being built of its kind. It was based on the ''Super-Foonly project'' designs, aimed to be the fastest DEC [[Engineering:PDP-10|PDP-10]] compatible,<ref name="hackers" /> but using [[Emitter-coupled logic|emitter-coupled logic]] (ECL) gates rather than [[Transistor–transistor logic|transistor–transistor logic]] (TTL), and without the extended instruction set.<ref name="cosonok">{{cite web |last=Brinkhoff |first=Lars |date=22 July 2012 |title=The Foonly F1: The Computer Behind Tron (1982) |url=http://www.cosonok.com/2012/07/the-super-foonly-f1-computer-behind.html |website=Cosonok's IT Blog}}</ref><ref name="ddyer">{{cite web |last=Sieg |first=David W |title=Dave Dyer, one of the principals behind the F1, |url=http://dave.zfxinc.net/ddyer.html |website=Dave Sieg website}}</ref> It was developed with the help of Triple-I, its first customer, and began operations in 1978.<ref name="F2" />

The computer consisted of four cabinets:
* One for the [[Central processing unit|central processing unit]] (CPU)
* One AMPEX for the [[Random-access memory|random-access memory]] (RAM), with 2&nbsp;MB of [[Core memory|core memory]]<ref name="dsiegf1">{{cite web |last=Sieg |first=David W |title=The Foonly F1 |url=http://dave.zfxinc.net/f1.html |website=Dave Sieg website}}</ref>
* A specific cabinet holding the Magic Movie Memory, a 3&nbsp;MB video buffer, used especially to render movie frames<ref name="dsiegf1" />
* One cabinet with tape and disk controllers, and power switches.

It was able to reach 4.5 MIPS.<ref name="overview" />

The F1 is mostly famous for having been the computer behind some of the [[Computer-generated imagery]] of the Disney 1982 ''Tron'' movie, and also ''Looker'' (1981).

After that, the computer was bought by the Canadian Omnibus Computer Graphics company, and was used on some movies, such as television logos for CBC, CTV, and Global Television Network channels, opening titles for the show ''Hockey Night in Canada'', ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984), ''Flight of the Navigator'' (1986), ''Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future'' television series (1987), and ''MarilynMonrobot''.<ref name="MovingInnovation">{{cite web| url = http://files.animation.ir/video/Moving_Innovation.pdf| title = Moving Innovation : a History of Computer History, Tom Sito |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725153801/http://files.animation.ir/video/Moving_Innovation.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2018}}</ref>

==Other models==
Unlike the F1, the other models (F2, F4, F4B, F5) were built with the slower TTL rather than ECL circuits, and housed in a single cabinet, rather than four.

Rather than use DEC's [[Engineering:Massbus|Massbus]] (or other DEC bus), Foonly developed F-bus, which can work with DEC and non-DEC peripherals.<ref name=Foonly.MMSmag1980>{{cite magazine |magazine=Mini-Micro Systems
   |title=Foonly challenges DEC patents with emulator
   |author=Larry Lettieri |date=November 1980 |pages=15, 17}}</ref>

===F2===
Foonly described the F2 as "a powerful mainframe at a minicomputer price," "with an average execution speed about 25% of that of the [[Engineering:DECSYSTEM-20|DECSYSTEM-20]]60."<ref name=F2brochure>{{cite web | title=The F2 - A New Flexible Alternative | url=http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/foonly/F2_Brochure.pdf}}</ref>

==Peripherals==
Standard equipment:<ref name=Tym>{{cite book | title=The Tymshare XX Series Computer Family | date=1981 | author=Tymshare |  page=4}}</ref>
* Disk drives: 1–6 units, with choices of 160 MB Winchester or 300&nbsp;MB removable
* Tape drives: 1–4 units, with choices of 800, 1600 & 6250 [[Physics:Magnetic tape data storage#Bytes per inch|BPI]]

==Software==
The Foonly machines, which could run the [[Software:TENEX (operating system)|TENEX operating system]], came with a derivative thereof, FOONEX.<ref name="overview" />

==Tymshare==
Tymshare attempted marketing the Foonly line, using the name "Tymshare XX Series Computer Family"<ref name=Tym /> of which the ''Tymshare System XXVI" was the main focus.<ref>{{cite book | date=1981 | title=Tymshare's System XXVI}}</ref>

==See also==
Other companies that produced PDP-10 compatible computers:
* [[Company:Systems Concepts|Systems Concepts]]
* XKL

==External links==
* [http://pdp10.nocrew.org/cpu/processors.html Lars Brinkhoff's table showing the F1 in perspective with other PDP-10 models]
* [http://dave.zfxinc.net/f1.html Dave Sieg's notes and description of the F1]
* [http://hackersdictionary.com/html/entry/Foonly.html The Foonly's entry, in The New Hacker's Dictionary, by Eric S. Raymond, Guy L. Steele]
* [http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/foonly/Foonly_Product_Overview.pdf The product line overview, Foonly brochure]
* [http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/foonly/F2_Brochure.pdf The Foonly F2 Brochure, 1981]

==References==
{{Reflist}}


[[Category:DEC hardware]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Companies (Engineering)]]
[[Category:Companies]]

{{Sourceattribution|Foonly}}