Programma 101
Encyclopedia
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 ($23,000 if adjusted to 2011). About 44,000 units were sold, primarily in the US.
It's usually considered a printing programmable calculator
or desktop calculator because three years later the Hewlett-Packard 9100A
, a model that took inspiration from the P101, was advertised by HP it as a "portable calculator", in order to be able to overcome the fears of computers and be able to sell it to corporations without passing through the corporate computer department.
functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus square root
, absolute value
, and fractional part. Also clear, transfer, exchange, and stop for input. There were 16 jump instructions and 16 conditional jump instructions. 32 label statements were available as destinations for the 32 jump instructions and/or the four start keys (V, W, Y, Z).
Each full register
held a 22-digit number with sign and decimal point.
Its memory consisted of 10 registers: three for operations (M, A, R); two for storage (B, C); three for storage and/or program (assignable as needed: D, E, F); and two for program only (p1, p2). Five of the registers (B, C, D, E, F) could be subdivided into half-registers, containing an 11-digit number with sign and decimal point. When used for programming, each full register stored 24 instructions.
It printed programs and results onto a roll of paper tape, similar to calculator or cash register paper.
Programming was similar to assembly language
, but simpler, as there were fewer options. It directed the exchange between memory registers and calculation registers, and operations in the registers.
The stored program
s could be recorded onto plastic
cards approximately 10 cm x 20 cm that had a magnetic
coating on one side and an area for writing on the other. Each card could be recorded on two stripes, enabling it to store two programs. All ten registers were stored on the card, allowing programs to use up to ten stored 11-digit constants.
The program to calculate logarithms occupied both stripes of one magnetic card.
s (transistors and diodes mounted on phenolic resin circuit card assemblies), as there were no microprocessor
s, and integrated circuit
s were in their infancy. It used an acoustical
delay line memory
with metal wire
s as a data storage device
. Magnetostriction
transducer
s inside an electromagnet
attached to either side of the end of the wire. Data bit
s entering the magnets caused the transducer to contract or expand (based on binary value
) and to twist the end of the wire. The resulting torsional
wave
moved down the wire. A piezoelectric transducer converted the bits into an electronic signal that was then amplified
and sent back to the beginning with a delay time of 2.2 millisecond
s. Typically, many bits would be in transit through the delay, and the computer selected them by counting and comparing to a master clock to find the particular bit it required. Delay line memory was far less expensive and far more reliable per bit than flip-flops made from vacuum tube
s, and yet far faster than latching relay
s.
was famous for its attention to both engineering and design aspects, as the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art
testify, and the Programma 101 was another example of this attention. Engineering wise, the team worked hard to deliver a very simple product, something that anyone could use. To support this, other than price and size objectives, they had human-centered objectives. This focus helped inventing things like the programmable magnetic card, a revolutionary item for that time allowing anyone to just insert it and execute any program in a few seconds.
To take care of the ergonomics and aesthetics of a product that didn't exist before, Roberto Olivetti called Mario Bellini
, a young Italian architect:
Programma 101 was a little jewel of usability, and this included the operating manual.
. The styling, attributed to Marco Zanuso
but in reality by Mario Bellini
, was ergonomical
and innovative for the time, and earned Bellini the Compasso d'Oro
Industrial Design Award.
Developed between 1962 and 1964, it was saved from the sale of the computer division to GE thanks to an employee that one night changed the internal categorization of the product from "computer" to "calculator", leaving the small team in Olivetti and creating some awkward situations in the office, since the building except that office was then owned by GE.
The Programma 101 was launched at the 1964 New York World's Fair
, attracting major interest. 40,000 units were sold; 90% of them in the United States
where the sale price was $3,200 (increasing to about $3,500 in 1968.)
Hewlett-Packard
was ordered to pay about $900,000 in royalties
to Olivetti after copying some of the solutions adopted in Programma 101, like the magnetic card and the architecture, in the HP 9100.
About 10. Programma 101 were sold to NASA and used to plan the Apollo 11
landing on the moon.
The 101 is mentioned as part of the system used by the US Air Force to compute coordinates for ground directed bombing
of B-52 Stratofortress
targets during the Vietnam War
.
Desktop computer
A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...
". Launched by 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...
at the 1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...
, volume production started in 1965. A futuristic
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
design for its time, the Programma 101 was priced at $3,200 ($23,000 if adjusted to 2011). About 44,000 units were sold, primarily in the US.
It's usually considered a printing programmable calculator
Programmable calculator
Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under control of a stored program, much like a computer. The first programmable calculators such as the IBM CPC used punched cards or other media for program storage...
or desktop calculator because three years later the Hewlett-Packard 9100A
Hewlett-Packard 9100A
The Hewlett-Packard 9100A is an early computer , first appearing in 1968. HP called it a desktop calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM...
, a model that took inspiration from the P101, was advertised by HP it as a "portable calculator", in order to be able to overcome the fears of computers and be able to sell it to corporations without passing through the corporate computer department.
Capabilities
The Programma 101 was able to calculate the basic four arithmeticArithmetic
Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of combining numbers...
functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus square root
Square root
In mathematics, a square root of a number x is a number r such that r2 = x, or, in other words, a number r whose square is x...
, absolute value
Absolute value
In mathematics, the absolute value |a| of a real number a is the numerical value of a without regard to its sign. So, for example, the absolute value of 3 is 3, and the absolute value of -3 is also 3...
, and fractional part. Also clear, transfer, exchange, and stop for input. There were 16 jump instructions and 16 conditional jump instructions. 32 label statements were available as destinations for the 32 jump instructions and/or the four start keys (V, W, Y, Z).
Each full register
Processor register
In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of storage available as part of a CPU or other digital processor. Such registers are addressed by mechanisms other than main memory and can be accessed more quickly...
held a 22-digit number with sign and decimal point.
Its memory consisted of 10 registers: three for operations (M, A, R); two for storage (B, C); three for storage and/or program (assignable as needed: D, E, F); and two for program only (p1, p2). Five of the registers (B, C, D, E, F) could be subdivided into half-registers, containing an 11-digit number with sign and decimal point. When used for programming, each full register stored 24 instructions.
It printed programs and results onto a roll of paper tape, similar to calculator or cash register paper.
Programming was similar to assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
, but simpler, as there were fewer options. It directed the exchange between memory registers and calculation registers, and operations in the registers.
The stored program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
s could be recorded onto plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
cards approximately 10 cm x 20 cm that had a magnetic
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
coating on one side and an area for writing on the other. Each card could be recorded on two stripes, enabling it to store two programs. All ten registers were stored on the card, allowing programs to use up to ten stored 11-digit constants.
The program to calculate logarithms occupied both stripes of one magnetic card.
Construction
All computation was handled by discrete deviceDiscrete device
A discrete device is an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive...
s (transistors and diodes mounted on phenolic resin circuit card assemblies), as there were no microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
s, and integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s were in their infancy. It used an acoustical
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
delay line memory
Delay line memory
Delay line memory was a form of computer memory used on some of the earliest digital computers. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern random-access memory, delay line memory was serial-access...
with metal wire
Wire
A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...
s as a data storage device
Data storage device
thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....
. Magnetostriction
Magnetostriction
Magnetostriction is a property of ferromagnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of material's magnetization due to the applied magnetic field changes the magnetostrictive strain until reaching its saturation value, λ...
transducer
Transducer
A transducer is a device that converts one type of energy to another. Energy types include electrical, mechanical, electromagnetic , chemical, acoustic or thermal energy. While the term transducer commonly implies the use of a sensor/detector, any device which converts energy can be considered a...
s inside an electromagnet
Electromagnet
An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current is turned off...
attached to either side of the end of the wire. Data bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
s entering the magnets caused the transducer to contract or expand (based on binary value
Binary numeral system
The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2...
) and to twist the end of the wire. The resulting torsional
Torsion (mechanics)
In solid mechanics, torsion is the twisting of an object due to an applied torque. In sections perpendicular to the torque axis, the resultant shear stress in this section is perpendicular to the radius....
wave
Wave
In physics, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and time, accompanied by the transfer of energy.Waves travel and the wave motion transfers energy from one point to another, often with no permanent displacement of the particles of the medium—that is, with little or no associated mass...
moved down the wire. A piezoelectric transducer converted the bits into an electronic signal that was then amplified
Electronic amplifier
An electronic amplifier is a device for increasing the power of a signal.It does this by taking energy from a power supply and controlling the output to match the input signal shape but with a larger amplitude...
and sent back to the beginning with a delay time of 2.2 millisecond
Millisecond
A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.10 milliseconds are called a centisecond....
s. Typically, many bits would be in transit through the delay, and the computer selected them by counting and comparing to a master clock to find the particular bit it required. Delay line memory was far less expensive and far more reliable per bit than flip-flops made from vacuum tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
s, and yet far faster than latching relay
Relay
A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to operate a switching mechanism mechanically, but other operating principles are also used. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a low-power signal , or where several circuits must be controlled...
s.
Design
OlivettiOlivetti
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...
was famous for its attention to both engineering and design aspects, as the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
testify, and the Programma 101 was another example of this attention. Engineering wise, the team worked hard to deliver a very simple product, something that anyone could use. To support this, other than price and size objectives, they had human-centered objectives. This focus helped inventing things like the programmable magnetic card, a revolutionary item for that time allowing anyone to just insert it and execute any program in a few seconds.
To take care of the ergonomics and aesthetics of a product that didn't exist before, Roberto Olivetti called Mario Bellini
Mario Bellini
Mario Bellini is a world renowned Italian architect and designer.He graduated from the Milan Polytechnic - Faculty of Architecture in 1959 and began working as an architect himself in the early 1960s...
, a young Italian architect:
Programma 101 was a little jewel of usability, and this included the operating manual.
History
It was designed by Olivetti engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto in IvreaIvrea
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...
. The styling, attributed to Marco Zanuso
Marco Zanuso
-The early years:Marco Zanuso was born in Milano May 14, 1916.He was one of a group of Italian designers from Milan shaping the international idea of "good design" in the postwar years. Trained in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano university, he opened his own design office in 1945...
but in reality by Mario Bellini
Mario Bellini
Mario Bellini is a world renowned Italian architect and designer.He graduated from the Milan Polytechnic - Faculty of Architecture in 1959 and began working as an architect himself in the early 1960s...
, was ergonomical
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...
and innovative for the time, and earned Bellini the Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro is the name of an Industrial Design award originated in Italy in 1954 by the La Rinascente company from an original idea of Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli. From 1964 it has been hosted exclusively by Associazione per il Disegno Industriale . It is the first and most recognized award...
Industrial Design Award.
Developed between 1962 and 1964, it was saved from the sale of the computer division to GE thanks to an employee that one night changed the internal categorization of the product from "computer" to "calculator", leaving the small team in Olivetti and creating some awkward situations in the office, since the building except that office was then owned by GE.
The Programma 101 was launched at the 1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...
, attracting major interest. 40,000 units were sold; 90% of them in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where the sale price was $3,200 (increasing to about $3,500 in 1968.)
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
was ordered to pay about $900,000 in royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
to Olivetti after copying some of the solutions adopted in Programma 101, like the magnetic card and the architecture, in the HP 9100.
About 10. Programma 101 were sold to NASA and used to plan the Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
landing on the moon.
The 101 is mentioned as part of the system used by the US Air Force to compute coordinates for ground directed bombing
Ground Directed Bombing
Ground Directed Bombing is a type of attack mission performed by ground attack aircraft. Aircraft are remotely guided from the ground with the assistance of a height and direction-finding radar. In mature versions of the system, bomb release is controlled from the ground for precision...
of B-52 Stratofortress
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service...
targets during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
External links
- Francesco Bonomi, Description of the P-101, retrieved 2009-12-17.
- Large Calculator…or Small Computer? Computer History Museum.
- Olivetti, Programma 101 General Reference Manual, hosted by the Old Calculator Web Museum, retrieved 2009-12-17.
- Internal pictures Old Calculator Web Museum.
- A simulator of the Olivetti Programma 101 is available here.