Olivetti Elea
Encyclopedia
The Elea 9003 is one of a series of mainframe
computers Olivetti
developed starting in the late 1950s. The system, made entirely with transistors for high performance, was conceived, designed and developed by a small group of researchers led by Mario Tchou (1924–1961). It was announced only a few months after the release of Siemens
2002 and several months before the first IBM transistorized computer
. The acronym ELEA stood for ELaboratore Elettronico Aritmetico (Arithmetical Electronic Computer) and was chosen with reference to the ancient Greek colony of Elea
, home of the Eleatic school of philosophy. About forty units were placed with customers, although Olivetti left the mainframe business only a few years after releasing the 9003.
Elea 9001 (Machine Zero) prototype was made with vacuum tubes, but used germanium
transistors for the tape drive
system. The system was completed in spring 1957 and was later sent to Ivrea
where for six years it controlled the Olivetti production warehouses. The machine was a prototype.
Elea 9002 (Machine 1V) was a prototype with printed circuits and optimized design, much faster than its predecessor and utilizing silicon transistors for the management of tape drives. The machine was used as a test for the transistors, to establish if they were more reliable and economic than vacuum tubes.
Elea 9003 (1T machine), designed entirely in discrete (Diode-transistor logic
), was the first fully transistorized commercial computer. With industrial design by Ettore Sottsass
, it was leased to about 40 individual customers, of which the first (Elea 9003/01) was installed at the textile company Marzotto
and second (Elea 9003/02) to Monte dei Paschi di Siena
. Later this unit was donated for educational purposes. Other mainframes were leased to insurance companies and energy companies.
The Olivetti computers competed directly with foreign manufacturers such as IBM
and Ferranti
, but received no special consideration from the Italian government. Typical applications were payroll, inventory and accounting.
This meant the computer was available for productive work only part of the day, and then returned to technicians for maintenance.
The need to obtain 300,000 highly reliable transistors and diodes for each computer, convinced Adriano Olivetti
to build a foundry called SGS in cooperation with the company Telettra . SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori) later became part of STMicroelectronics
.
The computer was equipped with words of 6 bits, plus a parity bit, and word mark bit, with ferrite core memories. Memory was organized in six-bit characters, representing letters, numerals and punctuation. The memory cycle frequency was 100 kHz, with a capacity between 20 and 160 thousand words. The computer did not have an operating system and could be programmed using machine language. The 9003 did not have floating point
arithmetic instructions since it was intended for commercial data processing. All instructions were of fixed length (eight characters).
Mass storage for the 9003 was on magnetic tape. Drum, disk and diskette memory was developed but never used at a customer site. Input and output was through punched paper tape or punched cards, and printing on a line printer
. A teleprinter
was used as operator console to control the machine, with a front panel
display for debugging and maintenance.
The industrial design of the system followed Olivetti esthetic and functional standards. Cabinets were about 1 metre high and interconnected by overhead conduits, so the system did not require the raised floor
of other mainframe designs. Each cabinet contained a subsystem (processor, memory, tape drives).
after it purchased Olivetti's computer interests. Over 40,000 units were sold with the GE model names GE 105, GE-115, GE-125, and GE-130.
The laboratories had also begun to develop a successor to the 9000 series that features a new hardware architecture. The company developed a programming language Palgol,a derivative of ALGOL
, and an assembler named Psyche. However, only a limited amount of system and utility software was provided by Olivetti to customers. The death of the engineers Olivetti and Tchou put a brake on laboratory work, which was subsequently sold to General Electric. This marked the end of Elea computers.
Even though the electronics division of Olivetti had been sold off, the knowledge gained was applied in the development of the successful Programma 101
electronic calculator.
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
computers Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
developed starting in the late 1950s. The system, made entirely with transistors for high performance, was conceived, designed and developed by a small group of researchers led by Mario Tchou (1924–1961). It was announced only a few months after the release of Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
2002 and several months before the first IBM transistorized computer
IBM 7090
The IBM 7090 was a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computers and was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 was the third member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation...
. The acronym ELEA stood for ELaboratore Elettronico Aritmetico (Arithmetical Electronic Computer) and was chosen with reference to the ancient Greek colony of Elea
Elea
Elea may refer to:* Elea, ancient name of an Italian Greek colony, now known as Velia**Eleatics, school of pre-Socratic philosophers at Elea* Elea, Kyrenia, a settlement of Cyprus in Kyrenia District...
, home of the Eleatic school of philosophy. About forty units were placed with customers, although Olivetti left the mainframe business only a few years after releasing the 9003.
Generations
The Elea 9000 had three generations:Elea 9001 (Machine Zero) prototype was made with vacuum tubes, but used germanium
Germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. The isolated element is a semiconductor, with an appearance most similar to elemental silicon....
transistors for the tape drive
Tape drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and performs digital recording, writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.A tape drive provides...
system. The system was completed in spring 1957 and was later sent to Ivrea
Ivrea
Ivrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...
where for six years it controlled the Olivetti production warehouses. The machine was a prototype.
Elea 9002 (Machine 1V) was a prototype with printed circuits and optimized design, much faster than its predecessor and utilizing silicon transistors for the management of tape drives. The machine was used as a test for the transistors, to establish if they were more reliable and economic than vacuum tubes.
Elea 9003 (1T machine), designed entirely in discrete (Diode-transistor logic
Diode-transistor logic
Diode–transistor logic is a class of digital circuits that is the direct ancestor of transistor–transistor logic. It is called so because the logic gating function is performed by a diode network and the amplifying function is performed by a transistor .- Implementations :The DTL circuit shown in...
), was the first fully transistorized commercial computer. With industrial design by Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. His body of designs included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design.-Early career:...
, it was leased to about 40 individual customers, of which the first (Elea 9003/01) was installed at the textile company Marzotto
Marzotto
The Marzotto Group is an Italian textile manufacturer, based in Valdagno.Created in 1836 as the Lanificio Luigi Marzotto & Figli. In 2005 Marzotto Group's textile business separated from Valentino Fashion Group....
and second (Elea 9003/02) to Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. is the oldest surviving bank in the world. Founded in 1472 by the Magistrate of the city state of Siena, Italy, as a mount of piety, it has been operating ever since. Today it consists of approximately 3,000 branches, 33,000 employees and 4.5 million...
. Later this unit was donated for educational purposes. Other mainframes were leased to insurance companies and energy companies.
The Olivetti computers competed directly with foreign manufacturers such as IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Ferranti
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...
, but received no special consideration from the Italian government. Typical applications were payroll, inventory and accounting.
Features
The computing power (approximately 8 to 10,000 instructions per second) was higher than that of competitors for several years. Uptime - as with all computers of the time - was less than 50%, especially in the tape device.This meant the computer was available for productive work only part of the day, and then returned to technicians for maintenance.
The need to obtain 300,000 highly reliable transistors and diodes for each computer, convinced Adriano Olivetti
Adriano Olivetti
Adriano Olivetti was an Italian entrepreneur, the son of the founder of Olivetti, Camillo Olivetti....
to build a foundry called SGS in cooperation with the company Telettra . SGS (Società Generale Semiconduttori) later became part of STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
.
The computer was equipped with words of 6 bits, plus a parity bit, and word mark bit, with ferrite core memories. Memory was organized in six-bit characters, representing letters, numerals and punctuation. The memory cycle frequency was 100 kHz, with a capacity between 20 and 160 thousand words. The computer did not have an operating system and could be programmed using machine language. The 9003 did not have floating point
Floating point
In computing, floating point describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. Numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16...
arithmetic instructions since it was intended for commercial data processing. All instructions were of fixed length (eight characters).
Mass storage for the 9003 was on magnetic tape. Drum, disk and diskette memory was developed but never used at a customer site. Input and output was through punched paper tape or punched cards, and printing on a line printer
Line printer
The line printer is a form of high speed impact printer in which one line of type is printed at a time. They are mostly associated with the early days of computing, but the technology is still in use...
. A teleprinter
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
was used as operator console to control the machine, with a front panel
Front panel
A front panel was used on early electronic computers to display and allow the alteration of the state of the machine's internal registers and memory. The front panel usually consisted of arrays of indicator lamps, toggle switches, and push buttons mounted on a sheet metal face plate...
display for debugging and maintenance.
The industrial design of the system followed Olivetti esthetic and functional standards. Cabinets were about 1 metre high and interconnected by overhead conduits, so the system did not require the raised floor
Raised floor
A raised floor or access floor are types of floor that provide an elevated structural floor above a solid substrate to create a hidden void for the passage of mechanical and electrical services...
of other mainframe designs. Each cabinet contained a subsystem (processor, memory, tape drives).
Developments
The Elea 6000 series were versions with reduced processing power and cost. They were originally designed for scientific computing with floating-point arithmetic, 4-bit memory width, then later developed for commercial applications (4+4 bits), with a microprogram memory. About 170 units were produced. The Elea 4000, was a later series that was successfully sold by General ElectricGeneral Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
after it purchased Olivetti's computer interests. Over 40,000 units were sold with the GE model names GE 105, GE-115, GE-125, and GE-130.
The laboratories had also begun to develop a successor to the 9000 series that features a new hardware architecture. The company developed a programming language Palgol,a derivative of ALGOL
ALGOL
ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...
, and an assembler named Psyche. However, only a limited amount of system and utility software was provided by Olivetti to customers. The death of the engineers Olivetti and Tchou put a brake on laboratory work, which was subsequently sold to General Electric. This marked the end of Elea computers.
Even though the electronics division of Olivetti had been sold off, the knowledge gained was applied in the development of the successful Programma 101
Programma 101
The Programma 101 was the first commercially produced "desktop computer". Launched by Olivetti at the 1964 New York World's Fair, volume production started in 1965. A futuristic design for its time, the Programma 101 was priced at $3,200...
electronic calculator.
External links
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/16394680/filippazzi08 In Italian
- http://www.isisfermi.it/ITIS/Informatica/Elea9003/tabid/144/language/en-US/Default.aspx Photo and Italian text of the last surviving 9003.