STANFORD UNIVERSITY
                     Stanford, California 94305


COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT                    Telephone 415-321-2300
                                                       extension 4202
                          February 23, 1973


Mr. John Leng
Digital Equipment Corperation
Maynard, Massachusetts

Dear Mr. Leng:


As  you no  doubt know,  a  group in  our laboratory  has  designed a

microprogrammed  processor,  locally known  as  "Super  Foonly", that

could execute  PDP-10 instructions  about four times  as fast  as the

KI10.  It  achieves this speed  primarily through the  use of  a 2000

word cache memory and S-series TTL logic.  Gordon Bell and Alan Kotok

recently participated in a design  review of this machine and  so are

fairly familiar with its state.


Our sponsor, ARPA, has underwritten the design cost, but is unwilling

to  pay  for  the  hardware.   Consequently,  we  are  seeking  other

resources that will  permit us to complete  a working machine  in our

laboratory.  I understand that DEC might have an interest in seeing a

processor of this sort reach a debugged state.  We would like  you to

consider the degree to which you can support such an undertaking.
Mr. John Leng                                                  Page 2


One  kind  of  support  that  would  be  most  helpful  would   be  a

contribution  of the  parts  and services  that we  were  planning to

purchase  from your  company.  This  would include  the items  on the

enclosed lists, compiled earlier with the help of Ken  Pierce.  These

items constitute about one-third of the total hardware costs.


Of course, we will have  to find additional funds in order  to finish

the project and are exploring several possibilities.   Any commitment

that DEC can make will be greatly appreciated.


Sincerely,



Lester D. Earnest
Executive Officer
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory


enclosures:  1.  Foonly parts and services from DEC
             2.  IC Listing

cc:  Gordon Bell (DEC)
     Alan Kotok (DEC)