 On the "hardware" side, Fido systems were usually well-equipped machines, for their day, with quick CPUs, high-speed modems and 16550 UARTs, which were at the time an upgrade.As a Fidonet system was usually a BBS, it needed to quickly process any new mail events before returning to its 'waiting for call' state.In addition, the BBS itself usually necessitated lots of storage space.