Netfax Daytona- NFX101

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Produced for Netfax by Acorn in 1997.

Notes provided by donor: 

"Between 1996 and 1998, I worked for Acorn Computers (before they went into liquidation) in the division that became Advanced RISC Technologies (or ART for short). As well as the division responsible for the desktop computers, it was also a consultancy shop that did bespoke work for hire.
 
One of its clients was a company called Netfax, who had patented a way of sending faxes using better compression. They hired ART to develop a product that they could sell using this algorithm, the idea being there would be a line in for a normal phone socket connection (this was obviously in the days of dial-up) and a line out to the regular FAX machine. The product would then act as the arbiter in the middle carrying out the compression of the FAX and sending/receiving it.
 
Two prototype products were made, the Laguna, which was a ‘black box’ and simply did nothing more than sending FAXes in a speedier fashion, and the Daytona, which had a keyboard and a screen, and could also be used as an emailer, hold email/FAX addresses, schedule FAX/email sending for each day of the week and other functionality.
 
I worked as an engineer on the latter, handling the scheduling, address book, configuration and a few other bits and pieces to do with the UI. Netfax paid ART a very small sum for this work, but every engineer working on the project also got shares in the company (tiny in value though they were). Both models ran RISC OS 3.5, and used an ARM7500FE processor (from what I can remember).

There’s a lot more information on how the company eventually slid into a bitter feud between its senior execs here:https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/0419/6308182a.html. It’s worth noting that in that article, Victor Lombardi states that there was ‘trouble with the subcontractor’. Well, I have a fully working production prototype here that proves otherwise. ART eventually cut ties with Netfax as they didn’t pay up on a due date.

Date : 1997

Manufacturer : Netfax

Format : Fax

Physical Description : Cardboard box, Cardboard insert, Daytona unit, Power supply, Power cable (UK), Power cable (US), Phone cable, User Guide

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH46352. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.
 

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