Editing Foonly

{{Short description|Computer company}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Foonly, Inc.
| logo             = Foonly wordmark.svg
| type             = [[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| access-date = 2018-07-14| archive-date = 2018-07-15| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180715011532/https://corporateswiki.com/ca/biz/C0782872/foonly-inc| url-status = dead}}</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]] company formed by Dave Poole<ref name="hackers">{{cite web |last1=Raymond |first1=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 [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[PDP-10]] compatible [[mainframe computer|mainframe]] computers.<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 [[Information International, Inc.|Triple-I]] to create some of the [[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 [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] to develop the ''PDP-10 model KL10'', based on the Super-Foonly.<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.

During the early 1980s, after the construction of the first and only F1, Foonly built and sold some low cost DEC [[PDP-10]] compatible machines: the F2, F4, F4B and F5.<ref name="F2" /><ref name="hackers" /><ref name="overview" />

In 1983, after the cancellation of the DEC [[Jupiter project]], Foonly tried to propose a new F1, but it was eclipsed by [[Systems Concepts]] and their Mars project. Foonly never 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]] processor
| frequency    = 11.1 MHz<ref name="overview" />
| memory       = Up to 18 [[megabytes|MB]] (4096 x 36 bits)<ref name="overview" />
| storage      = 
| mips         = 4.5 MIPS<ref name="overview" />
| flops        = 
| successor    = 
| predecessor  = 
}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Model       !![[Million instructions per second|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, aiming to be the fastest DEC [[PDP-10]] compatible computer,<ref name="hackers" /> but using [[emitter-coupled logic]] (ECL) gates rather than [[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]] (CPU)
* One AMPEX for the [[random-access memory]] (RAM), with 2&nbsp;MB of [[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 [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]], [[CTV Television Network|CTV]], and [[Global Television Network]] channels, opening titles for the ''[[Hockey Night in Canada]]'' programme, scanner effects for the film ''[[Star Trek III: The Search for Spock]]'', the alien spaceship Max flying and morphing in the film ''[[Flight of the Navigator]]'' and all of the CGI effects in the TV series ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]''.<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 [[Massbus]] (or other DEC buses), Foonly developed F-bus, which can work with DEC and non-DEC peripherals.<ref name=Foonly.MMSmag1980>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Mini-Micro Systems (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 [[DECSYSTEM-20|DECSYSTEM-2060]]."<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 | author-link=Tymshare | page=4}}</ref>
* Disk drives: 1–6 units, with choices of 160 MB [[History of IBM magnetic disk drives#IBM 3340|Winchester]] or 300&nbsp;MB removable
* Tape drives: 1–4 units, with choices of 800, 1600 & 6250 [[Magnetic tape data storage#Bytes per inch|BPI]]

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

==Tymshare==
[[Tymshare]] attempted marketing the Foonly line under the name of the "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:
* [[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}}

{{Tron}}

[[Category:American companies established in 1976]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 1989]]
[[Category:Companies based in California]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1976]]
[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 1989]]
[[Category:DEC hardware]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Defunct computer systems companies]]
[[Category:1976 establishments in California]]