The Selenia Gp-16 was a general purpose minicomputer designed by the Italian company Selenia of STET group. It was followed by an upgraded version called Gp-160.
History
The Gp-16 was minicomputer designed mainly for industrial customers, whose concept in design was similar to PDP-8. The design took place in Rome during the mid-sixties under the supervision of Saverio Rotella, when the production was carried in Fusaro (Naples) in the second half of that decade.[1][2][3]
The most known uses were in control tower in airports, as done in Venice;[4] a modified upgraded version was used in Gruppi Speciali of CSELT, the second electromechanical phone switch in Europe.[5] The Gp16 was later adopted also by Olivetti.[6] However, it never reached a large diffusion because of a small market push from its producing company.[7]
Technical features
Hardware
- word length: 16-bit;
- RAM memory: 8 Kbyte, extensibile to 32 Kbyte (when the CSELT version extended it until 64 Kbyte);
- cycle time: 4 microseconds;
- ROM technology: magnetic-core memory;
- input/output peripherals: punched card reader, punched tape reader, teleprinter.
Software
- No true Operating system;
- Fortran Compiler;
- Arithmetical calculation Routine;
- Monitor processing system;
- Assembly language.
Notes
- ^ Gaspare Galati (2016). 100 years of radar. Springer. p. 214. ISBN 978-3-319-00584-3.
- ^ Il Mondo
- ^ Ing. Paolo M. De Gaetano Polverosi. "Un Ingegnere racconta" (PDF) (in Italian).
- ^ Stefano Zavagli (23 March 2016). "Alberto, l'ingegnere che salva le vecchie glorie dei computer". La Stampa (in Italian).
- ^ Cesare Mossotto (2011). "Centro studi e laboratori telecomunicazioni (CSELT)". In Cantoni, Virginio; Falciasecca, Gabriele; Pelosi, Giuseppe (eds.). Storia delle telecomunicazioni, Vol. 1 (in Italian). Firenze University Press. p. 370. ISBN 978-88-6453-243-1.
- ^ Olivettiani.it: Ricordi di Mauro (iii)
- ^ Bozzo, Massimo (November 1996). La grande storia del computer: dall'abaco all'intelligenza artificiale (in Italian). Vol. 37. Edizioni Dedalo. p. 381. ISBN 9788822045379.
- ^ Dagnino, P.; Leccisi, D.; Piattelli, M.; Tiano, A. (July 1973). "Progetto Esquilino": An Experiment about an Optimal Gyro-Pilot. An IFAC IFIP Symposium on Ship Operation Automation, Oslo, Norway, 2-5 July. pp. 121–129. doi:10.1016/S1474-6670(17)68118-7.
- ^ Sidowski, Joseph B. (May 1971). "Printout" (PDF). Behavior Research Methods. 3 (3): 171. doi:10.3758/BF03209944.
Bibliography
- Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, La cultura informatica in Italia: riflessioni e testimonianze sulle origini: 1950-1970, Bollati Boringhieri, 1993.
External links
This page was last edited on 4 July 2023, at 11:52