Olivetti computers

Central control unit of the mainframe Olivetti Elea 9003 (1957)

Between 1955 and 1964 Olivetti developed some of the first transistorized mainframe computer 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, 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.[1]

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.

Olivetti's first modern personal computer, the M20, featuring a Zilog Z8000 CPU, was released in 1982.[2]

The M20 was followed in 1983 by the M24,[3] a clone of the IBM PC using DOS and the Intel 8086 processor (at 8 MHz) instead of the Intel 8088 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.[4] The M24 in the US also was sold as Xerox 6060. The Olivetti M28 was the firm's first PC to have the Intel 80286 processor. The same year Olivetti produced its M10 laptop computer,[5] a 8085-based workalike of the successful Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100, which it marketed in Europe.[6] These were the first laptops to sell in million-unit quantities, though the Olivetti M10 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; a third partner was Thomson SA. Olivetti sold the Thomson MO6 and Acorn BBC Master Compact with brand names Olivetti Prodest PC128 and PC128S[7] respectively.

In 1987, Olivetti introduced the LSX line of computers which was based on the Motorola 68k processor. They could run either MOS or Olivetti's Unix, X/OS.[8]

In 1988, Olivetti released the M380/C, part of the Pandora project - an experimental system for multimedia applications.[9] They also released the PC1 Prodest and PC1 HD (XT clones, similar to the Schneider Euro PC).[10][11]

In 1989, the Olivetti M290S was released, featuring an Intel 80286 at 12 MHz, 1 MB of RAM and a 30 MB hard drive.[12] That same year the company presented their 80486 based next generation of LSX workstations, with the Olivetti LSX 5020 (with EISA-Bus) being shown in CeBit as Computing Platform CP486.

In 1990, Olivetti had its own distribution network in New Zealand through Essentially Software Ltd.[13] (owned by Gary McNabb) located at Mt. Eden in Auckland and Wellington, where Olivetti M300-100 16 MHz PCs with 80386SX CPU were sold for NZ$7395 and used as graphical work station for design houses using Corel Draw 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 and keyboard.[14] Olivetti also sold quasi-portable 8086/8088-based PCs with an integrated keyboard and one or two integrated 3.5" floppy disk drives, running DOS 3.27, an Olivetti OEM version of PC DOS 3.20 with minor improvements like the M21 portable (based on M24) and the M15. Also later Olivetti produced interesting laptops like M111, M211, S20, D33, Philos and Echos series. A very interesting subnotebook was the Quaderno, about the same size as an A5 paper – it was the grandfather of the netbooks introduced 20 years later.

Olivetti did attempt to recover its position by introducing the Envision in 1995,[15] a full multimedia PC, to be used in the living room; this project was a failure. Packard Bell 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.