Stofor, pronounced as in "Stow Four", is a store and forward

Store and forward

Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in a networking context, verifies the integrity of...

 message switching system designed by Fenwood Designs Ltd, UK in 1980.

Market and specification

Stofor was aimed squarely at the bottom end of the market and its competitors were from companies such as Chernikeef and Racal

Racal

Racal Electronics plc was once the third-largest British electronics firm. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including: as voice and data recorders; point of sale terminals; laboratory instruments;...

 but Stofor was soon outselling both with ease. The Stofor range was based on a 4 MHz Zilog

Zilog

Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...

 Z80 processor with 64K RAM and provided from 4 to 64 ports. Early models, and some later ones, were floppy disc based but later and larger versions had 10Mb Winchester technology hard discs for storage. Stofor was the only message switching system of its size to boast a custom text editor designed by Fenwood with the needs of the telex user in mind. Its main workload was in the sending and receiving of telex

Telex

Telex may refer to:* Telex , , a communications network** Teleprinter, the device used on the above network* Telex , a Belgian pop group...

 messages but it was also put to work in a wide range of other communications areas including fax.

The initial design was for a system that would replace a London commodity broker

Commodity broker

A commodity broker is a firm or individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of clients and charges them a commission. A firm or individual who trades for his own account is called a trader. Commodity contracts include futures, options, and similar financial...

's antiquated telex room, containing 12 telex machines, with a computer for sending and receiving messages plus a number of VDUs (computer display

Computer display

A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...

s) for preparing and editing messages. The resulting Stofor system was an instant hit and many orders were placed when the broker’s associates and competitors saw the system in operation. Additional options such as direct input from dedicated word processor

Word processor

A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....

s, leased line working and several other features were soon requested and incorporated.

Users

Stofor became very popular in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 and was in use by banks, shipping brokers, commodity traders and insurance companies. Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...

 used one as the centre of its European message distribution network in Reading and others were in use by a number of household names in the food, chemical and engineering industries. Several were supplied to INMARSAT

Inmarsat

Inmarsat plc is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global, mobile services. It provides telephony and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate to ground stations through eleven geostationary telecommunications satellites...

 to provide telex links via satellite for ships at sea.

Manufacture

When Stofor was born, Fenwood employed about six staff but this grew rapidly until there were forty eight, covering all aspects such design, procurement, production, software writing, sales and customer support. Sadly, with the rapid growth of fax

Fax

Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...

 and then the advent of email, demand for message switching systems such as Stofor died away and Fenwood moved into other markets, finally being wound up in the late 1990s. During their 'lives' Fenwood and Stofor were based in Farncombe, Godalming

Godalming

Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...

, Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

; all in Surrey, UK and in Aldershot

Aldershot

Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...

, Hampshire, UK.

Designers

Stofor was the result of work by Fenwood's three directors: John Kashel, Sales and Marketing Director, who came up with the concept and basic specification; Bob Fearnley, Technical Director, who designed the hardware and Tom Grainger, Software Director, who wrote the software. The original software for the product had been written by a third party but, as they let Fenwood down badly on delivery dates, Tom Grainger completed the job and eventually rewrote all the software in-house.