The
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been part of ...
company, an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
manufacturer of
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s,
tablets,
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s,
printers
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* Jame ...
and other such business products as
calculator
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...
s and
fax machines
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
, was founded as a
typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
s manufacturer by
Camillo Olivetti
Samuel David Camillo Olivetti known just as Camillo (August 13, 1868 – December 1943) was an Italian electrical engineer and founder of Olivetti & Co., SpA., the Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines. The ...
in 1908 in the
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
commune of
Ivrea
Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it stradd ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
Olivetti was a pioneer in computer development, starting with the mainframe systems in the 1950s, and continuing into the 1990s with PC compatible laptops and desktops.
History
1950-60s
![Olivetti Elea 9003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Olivetti_Elea_9003.jpg)
Between 1955 and 1964 Olivetti developed some of the first transistorized
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
systems, such as the
Elea 9003. Although 40 large commercial 9003 and over 100 smaller 6001 scientific machines were completed and leased to customers to 1964, low sales, loss of two key managers and financial instability caused Olivetti to withdraw from the field in 1964.
In 1965, Olivetti released the
Programma 101
The Olivetti Programma 101, also known as Perottina or P101, is one of the first "all in one" commercial desktop programmable calculators, although not the first.
Produced by Italian manufacturer Olivetti, based in Ivrea, Piedmont, and invented by ...
, considered one of the first commercial desktop programmable calculators. It was saved from the sale of the computer division to GE thanks to an employee, Gastone Garziera, who spent successive nights changing the internal categorization of the product from "computer" to "calculator", so leaving the small team in Olivetti and creating some awkward situations in the office, since that space was now owned by GE.
1970s
In 1974, the firm released the
TC800, an intelligent terminal designed to be attached to a mainframe and used in the finance sector. It was followed in 1977 by the
TC1800.
1980s
Olivetti's first modern personal computer, the
M20, featuring a
Zilog Z8000
The Z8000 ("''zee-'' or ''zed-eight-thousand''") is a 16-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog in early 1979. The architecture was designed by Bernard Peuto while the logic and physical implementation was done by Masatoshi Shima, assisted by a ...
CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
, was released in 1982.
The M20 was followed in 1983 by the
M24, a clone of the
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
using
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...
and the
Intel 8086
The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowi ...
processor (at 8
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
) instead of the
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers an ...
used by
IBM (at 4.77 MHz). The M24 was sold in North America as the
AT&T 6300. Olivetti also manufactured the AT&T 6300 Plus, which could run both DOS and
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
. The M24 was also sold as
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
6060 in the US, and as
LogAbax
LogAbax was a French computer brand. Founded in 1942, the company was one of France's pioneers in computer manufacturing. The name is composed of two abbreviations: ''Log'' from logarithm and ''Abax'' from abacus.
History
The company was crea ...
PERSONA 1600 in France. The
Olivetti M28
The Olivetti M28 personal computer, introduced in 1986, was the successor to the Olivetti M24.
It had an Intel 80286 CPU running at 8 MHz and 512 KB (expandable to 1024 KB on the motherboard) of RAM, featuring a 5.25" floppy drive and a 20 M ...
was the firm's first PC to have the
Intel 80286
The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the fi ...
processor. It was sold in France as the LogAbax Persona 1800.
.
The same year Olivetti produced its
M10 laptop computer
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
, a
8085
The Intel 8085 ("''eighty-eighty-five''") is an 8-bit microprocessor produced by Intel and introduced in March 1976. It is software-binary compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 with only two minor instructions added to support its added i ...
-based workalike of the successful
Radio Shack
RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921.
At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...
TRS-80 Model 100
The TRS-80 Model 100 is a portable computer introduced in April 26th, 1983. It is one of the first notebook-style computers, featuring a keyboard and liquid crystal display, in a battery-powered package roughly the size and shape of a notepad or ...
, which it marketed in Europe. These were the first laptops to sell in million-unit quantities, though the itself only attained sales figures in the tens of thousands and went out of production within two years.
In 1985, the company acquired a controlling share in the British computer manufacturer
Acorn Computers Ltd
The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally
two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne i ...
; a third partner was
Thomson SA Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
. Olivetti sold the
Thomson MO6 Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
and Acorn
BBC Master
The BBC Master is a home computer released by Acorn Computers in early 1986. It was designed and built for the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and was the successor to the BBC Micro, BBC Micro Model B. The Master 128 remained in produ ...
Compact with brand names Olivetti
Prodest PC128 and
PC128S respectively.
In 1987, Olivetti introduced the LSX line of computers which was based on the
Motorola 68000 series
The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and w ...
of processors. They could run either Olivetti's proprietary MOS or Olivetti's own
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
variant,
X/OS. Intended to replace Olivetti's existing Linea Uno (L1) range of
multiuser systems, introduced in 1981, the reported investment in the LSX line by Olivetti was seen as a necessary measure to update its range, bringing increased performance, offering an upgrade path to existing customers (with a promise that existing L1 systems could be upgraded with a new processor card), and preserving a degree of control over product designs that would not have been possible by merely selling or adapting products from AT&T, at that time a significant shareholder in the company. For the high-end LSX models, Olivetti employed technologies from Edge Computer, an
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
-based company pursuing higher-performance processor designs offering a degree of compatibility with the Motorola 68000 architecture.
In 1988, Olivetti released the
M380/C, part of the
Pandora project - an experimental system for
multimedia applications. They also released the
PC1 Prodest and
PC1 HD (
XT clones, similar to the
Schneider Euro PC
The Schneider Euro PC was a PC compatible home computer, introduced in 1988 by the Schneider Computer Division.
A follow-up to the success of the Schneider CPC series, the Euro PC offered an inexpensive entry into the emerging market for home P ...
).
In 1989, the
Olivetti M290S was released, featuring an
Intel 80286
The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the fi ...
at 12 MHz, 1 MB of RAM and a 30 MB
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
. That same year, the company presented their
80486
The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. The i486 was introduced in 1989. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the ...
-based next generation of workstations, with Olivetti's CP486 (Computing Platform 486) model (with
EISA bus) being shown at
CeBit
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
. As part of a relaunch of the company's Open Systems Architecture (OSA) strategy in 1991, the CP486 was renamed to the LSX-5010, and an accompanying 33 MHz model was introduced as the LSX-5020, alongside the four-processor LSX-5030 and LSX-5040 systems. The CP486 provided sockets for a
Weitek
Weitek Corporation was an American chip-design company that originally focused on floating-point units for a number of commercial CPU designs. During the early to mid-1980s, Weitek designs could be found powering a number of high-end designs a ...
WTL4167
numeric co-processor and an
Intel i860
The Intel i860 (also known as 80860) is a RISC microprocessor design introduced by Intel in 1989. It is one of Intel's first attempts at an entirely new, high-end instruction set architecture since the failed Intel iAPX 432 from the beginning of ...
RISC processor
In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set comput ...
.
1990s
In 1990, Olivetti had its own distribution network in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
through Essentially Software Ltd. (owned by Gary McNabb) located at Mt. Eden in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
and
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
, where
Olivetti M300-100 16 MHz PCs with
80386SX
The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors[CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...]
were sold for
NZ$
The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New Zea ...
7395 and used as
graphical work station for design houses using
Corel Draw
CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap-image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs (see below). T ...
as graphical program. The New Zealand distribution stopped in 1991 when Olivetti could not supply their PCs.
In 1991, Olivetti introduced the
D33, a laptop in a carry case and the
PCS 286S, a PC with
VGA monitor
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the Personal computer, PC industry within three years ...
and keyboard.
Olivetti also sold quasi-portable 8086/8088-based PCs with an integrated
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
and one or two integrated 3.5"
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
drives, running DOS 3.27, an Olivetti
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
version of
PC DOS
PC or pc may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games
* ''Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera
* ...
3.20 with minor improvements like the
M21 portable (based on M24) and the
M15 M15 or M-15 may refer to:
In science
* Messier 15 (M15), a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus
In firearms and military equipment
* M15 mine, a United States anti-tank mine
* M15 rifle, a variant of the M14, a United States military rif ...
. Also later Olivetti produced interesting laptops like
M111,
M211,
S20,
D33,
Philos
Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE – 40 CE) was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.
Philo may also refer to:
People
Given name
* Philo of Byblos (64–141 CE), writer of grammatical, lexica ...
and
Echos
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
series. A very interesting
subnotebook
Subnotebook, also called ultraportable, superportable, or mini notebook, was a marketing term for laptop computers that are smaller and lighter than a typical notebook-sized laptop.
Types and sizes
As typical laptop sizes have decreased over t ...
was the
Quaderno, about the same size as an
A5 paper – it was the grandfather of the
netbook
Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
s introduced 20 years later.
Although Olivetti had committed to a range of
MIPS-based workstations
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...
running
Windows NT
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems sc ...
, introducing the M700 series in 1992 with the M700-10 featuring a MIPS R4000PC processor,
the company pursued a partnership with
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...
in 1992, putting its MIPS-based offerings in doubt as the company announced its intention to eventually focus on only two product lines: one featuring Intel processors and the other
Alpha processors.
This partnership eventually led to the introduction of the LSX 7000 range of workstations and servers employing Digital's Alpha CPU in 1994.
However, just as Olivetti had abandoned its development of products based on the MIPS architecture, discontinuing the M700 produced by its Japanese subsidiary, by 1993, the company had also narrowed its development focus "entirely" to systems based on Intel's
Pentium
Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and Pe ...
, merely reselling "semi-finished" Digital products based on Alpha.
Olivetti did attempt to recover its position by introducing the
Envision
Envision may refer to:
Organizations
* Envision EMI, a management company based in Virginia, USA
* Envision Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer and energy technology company based in Shanghai, China
* Envision Financial, a financial institution ...
in 1995,
a full
multimedia PC
The Multimedia PC (MPC) was a recommended configuration for a personal computer (PC) with a CD-ROM drive. The standard was set and named by the "Multimedia PC Marketing Council", which was a working group of the Software Publishers Association (SP ...
, to be used in the
living room
In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...
; this project was a failure.
Packard Bell
Packard Bell is a Dutch-registered computer manufacturing brand and subsidiary of Acer. Originally an American radio set manufacturer, Packard Bell Corporation, it was founded by Herbert A. Bell and Leon S. Packard in 1933. In 1986, Israeli in ...
managed to successfully introduce a similar product in the U.S. but only some years later.
The company continued to develop personal computers until it sold its PC business in 1997.
Models
Peripherals
* PR40, PR2, PR2-e, PR2+, PR2-10 Scanner Printer which was used in banking sectors
* PG-series and PGL-series - black and white digital printers
* d-Color p-series color digital printers
* A3 and A4 series MFP
See also
*
Macchine per scrivere della Olivetti (it): the list of every model of Olivetti typewriter and related article on the Italian Wikipedia
*
Olivetti S.p.A.
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been part ...
*
Olivetti typewriters The Olivetti company, an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines, was founded as a typewriters manufacturer by Camillo Olivetti in 1908 in the Turin commun ...
References
{{Commons category, Olivetti computers
Olivetti S.p.A.
Olivetti computers
Olivetti personal computers