<s>
The	O
TENET	B-Device
210	I-Device
was	O
a	O
mainframe	B-Architecture
computer	I-Architecture
designed	O
for	O
timesharing	B-General_Concept
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
machine	O
was	O
designed	O
for	O
high	O
throughput	O
and	O
expandability	O
,	O
including	O
20	O
direct	B-General_Concept
memory	I-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
(	O
DMA	O
)	O
channels	O
and	O
eight	O
slots	O
for	O
core	B-General_Concept
memory	I-General_Concept
,	O
allowing	O
up	O
to	O
128k	O
32-bit	O
words	O
of	O
RAM	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
TENET	B-Device
210	I-Device
ultimately	O
traces	O
its	O
history	O
to	O
a	O
project	O
within	O
Fairchild	O
Semiconductor	O
's	O
research	O
and	O
development	O
center	O
in	O
Palo	O
Alto	O
,	O
California	O
run	O
by	O
Gordon	O
Moore	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
new	O
group	O
organized	O
by	O
Rex	O
Rice	O
was	O
developing	O
a	O
machine	O
specifically	O
for	O
the	O
timesharing	B-General_Concept
market	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Known	O
as	O
the	O
Symbol	O
IIR	O
,	O
the	O
design	O
concept	O
was	O
a	O
machine	O
that	O
ran	O
a	O
PL/1	B-Language
-like	O
language	O
as	O
its	O
native	O
assembler	B-Language
language	I-Language
,	O
and	O
would	O
be	O
implemented	O
entirely	O
in	O
hardware	O
-	O
no	O
microcode	B-Device
or	O
firmware	B-Application
was	O
allowed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
it	O
was	O
by	O
most	O
measures	O
a	O
general-purpose	O
minicomputer	B-Architecture
,	O
Fairchild	O
was	O
uninterested	O
in	O
marketing	O
it	O
as	O
such	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
time	O
,	O
the	O
timesharing	B-General_Concept
market	O
was	O
developing	O
rapidly	O
,	O
and	O
had	O
split	O
into	O
two	O
solution	O
classes	O
;	O
the	O
minicomputer	B-Architecture
end	O
was	O
aimed	O
at	O
smaller	O
users	O
who	O
would	O
buy	O
a	O
complete	O
system	O
for	O
in-house	O
use	O
,	O
like	O
the	O
HP	B-Device
2100	I-Device
,	O
while	O
at	O
the	O
other	O
end	O
were	O
large	O
mainframes	B-Architecture
that	O
sold	O
services	O
on	O
a	O
per-minute	O
basis	O
to	O
users	O
on	O
remote	O
computer	B-General_Concept
terminals	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
1968	O
,	O
Runge	O
and	O
Masters	O
left	O
Fairchild	O
to	O
form	O
TENET	O
with	O
the	O
intent	O
of	O
building	O
a	O
mid-range	O
system	O
with	O
the	O
price	O
of	O
the	O
mini	O
offerings	O
but	O
the	O
power	O
of	O
the	O
mainframes	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tymshare	O
examined	O
the	O
machine	O
as	O
a	O
replacement	O
for	O
the	O
SDS	B-Device
940s	I-Device
,	O
and	O
Hewlett-Packard	O
as	O
a	O
replacement	O
for	O
their	O
initial	O
failed	O
effort	O
for	O
what	O
became	O
the	O
HP	B-Device
3000	I-Device
,	O
but	O
neither	O
effort	O
was	O
successful	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Core	B-General_Concept
memory	I-General_Concept
was	O
connected	O
on	O
one	O
side	O
of	O
the	O
bus	O
,	O
with	O
up	O
to	O
eight	O
modules	O
of	O
8	O
to	O
16k	O
words	O
each	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Expansion	O
systems	O
included	O
a	O
disk	O
controller	O
which	O
could	O
run	O
one	O
to	O
four	O
25MB	O
hard	B-Device
drives	I-Device
,	O
a	O
communications	O
card	O
for	O
up	O
to	O
16	O
terminals	O
each	O
,	O
card	O
readers	O
,	O
printer	O
outputs	O
and	O
tape	O
drives	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
significant	O
aspect	O
of	O
the	O
design	O
was	O
its	O
memory	B-Architecture
paging	I-Architecture
system	O
,	O
which	O
used	O
conventional	O
hard	B-Device
drives	I-Device
rather	O
than	O
the	O
custom	O
memory	B-General_Concept
drums	I-General_Concept
or	O
specialized	O
hard	B-Device
disks	I-Device
with	O
multiple	O
read/write	B-Device
heads	I-Device
(	O
a	O
random-access	O
disk	O
,	O
or	O
RAD	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Making	O
this	O
work	O
with	O
reasonable	O
performance	O
required	O
significant	O
efforts	O
to	O
tune	O
the	O
input/output	B-General_Concept
routines	O
to	O
avoid	O
unnecessary	O
reads	O
and	O
writes	O
,	O
which	O
was	O
handled	O
in	O
the	O
system	O
's	O
hardware	O
memory	B-General_Concept
management	I-General_Concept
unit	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Time-to-market	O
and	O
overall	O
cost	O
was	O
also	O
reduced	O
through	O
the	O
use	O
of	O
off-the-shelf	O
TTL	B-General_Concept
small	O
scale	O
integration	O
circuits	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
CPU	O
was	O
designed	O
to	O
minimize	O
the	O
length	O
of	O
code	O
as	O
a	O
further	O
effort	O
to	O
reduce	O
memory	B-Architecture
swapping	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Its	O
instruction	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
included	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
"	O
rich	O
"	O
instructions	O
for	O
packing	O
and	O
unpacking	O
bytes	O
into	O
words	O
,	O
gathering	O
and	O
scattering	O
data	O
in	O
memory	O
,	O
test-and-set	O
,	O
pre	O
-	O
and	O
post-indexing	O
and	O
pattern	O
matching	O
against	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
were	O
sixteen	O
global	O
PINS	O
,	O
hard-wired	O
to	O
key	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
routines	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
supplied	O
with	O
two	O
programming	O
languages	O
,	O
FORTRAN	O
IV	O
and	O
TENET	O
BASIC	O
,	O
the	O
later	O
of	O
which	O
they	O
claimed	O
was	O
the	O
most	O
powerful	O
version	O
of	O
the	O
BASIC	B-Language
programming	I-Language
language	I-Language
available	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Machines	O
also	O
included	O
a	O
text	B-Application
editor	I-Application
,	O
macro	B-Language
assembler	I-Language
,	O
two	O
debuggers	B-Application
and	O
a	O
single	O
-	O
and	O
double-precision	O
floating	B-Algorithm
point	I-Algorithm
library	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Hard	B-Device
drive	I-Device
controllers	O
were	O
$21	O
,	O
000	O
,	O
the	O
drives	O
themselves	O
$19	O
,	O
500	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
communications	O
card	O
and	O
"	O
quad	O
adaptor	O
"	O
were	O
$	O
4,000	O
and	O
$	O
2,000	O
respectively	O
Up	O
to	O
four	O
quad	O
adaptors	O
could	O
be	O
used	O
with	O
each	O
communications	O
card	O
,	O
for	O
a	O
total	O
of	O
16	O
terminals	O
per	O
card	O
.	O
</s>
