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Olivetti

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File:Olivettilogo.gif
Olivetti Lettera 22, 1950

Ing. C. Olivetti & Co., SpA. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.

History

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, who is also famous for developing a new management system. It opened its first overseas manufacturing plant in 1930. Olivetti's Divisumma electric calculator was launched in 1948. Olivetti produced Italy's first electronic computer, the transistorised Elea 9003, in 1959. They also purchased the US typewriter company Underwood that year. In 1964 the company sold its electronics division to the USA company General Electric, although it continued to develop new computing products.

Olivetti was famous for the attention it gave to design: "[a] preoccupation with design developed into a comprehensive corporate philosophy, which embraced everything from the shape of a space bar to the color scheme for an advertising poster".[1] In 1952, the New York Museum of Modern Art put on the show Olivetti: Design in Industry and many Olivetti products remain part of the museum's permanent collection. Another major show, mounted by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1969, toured five other cities.[2] Olivetti was also well-known for the caliber of the architects it engaged to design its factories and offices, including Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Gae Aulenti, and many others.[3]

From the 1940s to the 60s, Olivetti industrial design was led by Marcello Nizzoli, responsible for the Lexicon 80 (1948) and the iconic portable Lettera 22 (1950). Later, Mario Bellini and Ettore Sottsass directed design. Bellini designed the Programma 101 (1965), Divisumma 18 (1973) and Logos 68 (1973) calculators and the TCV-250 video display terminal (1966), among others. Sottsass designed the Tekne 3 typewriter (1958), Elea 9003 computer (1959), the Praxis 48 typewriter (1964), the very famous Valentine portable typewriter (1969), and others. Michele De Lucchi designed the Art Jet 10 ink-jet printer (1999) (winner of the Compasso d'Oro) and the Gioconda calculator (2001).[4]

Olivetti's first personal computer, the M20 with Zilog Z8000 CPU, was released in 1982. In 1985 it acquired a controlling share in the British computer manufacturer Acorn Computers Ltd; a third partner was Thomson SA, and indeed Olivetti was selling the Thomson MO6 and Acorn BBC Master Compact with brand names "Olivetti Prodest" PC128 and PC128s respectively. The company continued to develop personal computers until it sold its PC business in 1997.

Olivetti also manufactured for AT&T as an OEM the Model 6300 [2] PC (actually a re-badged Olivetti M24).

The Luxembourg-based company Bell S.A. acquired a controlling stake in Olivetti in 1999, but sold it to a consortium including the Pirelli and Benetton groups two years later. In 2003 Olivetti was absorbed into the Telecom Italia group, maintaining a separate identity as Olivetti Tecnost.

Operations

Olivetti today operates in two countries (Italy and Switzerland) and sales associates in 83 countries.

Research and development are located in:

Total employees in 2003 was 1,755.

Famous Olivetti users

Products

  • Linea - Multifunctional office printer/scanner
  • Any Way - Multifunctional print scanner
  • My Way - Portable printers
  • Fax Lab 95
  • Fax Lab 100
  • Fax Lab 101 and 101S
  • Fax Lab 120
  • Fax Lab 121, 220, 450, 470, 270
  • OFX 180, 9000, 9100, 9200
  • IN series cartiages
  • ON series paper
  • L817 calculators
  • T1210 Solar calculators
  • J1210 Solar calculators
  • Summa 120, 20,
  • Logos 662, 664T, 694T
  • PR2 plus passbook printers
  • PR2 Enhanced passbook printers
  • PR2 passbook printers
  • PR4 SL (Slip)
  • PR4 DR
  • PR4 SR
  • PRJ 12
  • Immagina - Cheque reader and scanner
  • Slip Printers
  • PRJ 200
  • PRT100
  • PR40 passbook printers
  • PR30 passbook printers
  • TC485 terminal computer
  • TC800 terminal computer
  • P 602, 603, 6040, 6060, 6066
  • Audit 4, 5, 6, 7
  • Tekne and Editor series electric typewriters
  • Lexicon series golf ball typewriters
  • d-Copia Copiers
  • d-Copia colour, B/W printer/scanner (A3 and A4 series)
  • d-Color P160
  • d-Color P24
  • PG L22 colour printer
  • Fax Lab 100
  • Linea 198 typerwriters
  • CRF 4050 cash registers
  • ECR 5100, 5300, 5700, 5900
  • Gallery, Logic
  • Nettuna 200, 400
  • ORS 6600 Planet
  • Explor@ 100, 200, 300 200M 300M - POS
  • Explor@ 120D, 150D and Gold
  • D-Files
  • Document Management
  • TP Label - franking system
  • PR6 and PR2 family - Counter Printing Peripherals
  • MAAF - secure value stamps issuer
  • M2T, M3m M5C, TE1000, TE1000R, AX/T - ticket validation
  • HD3, NT, XP, COMBO - validator
  • Echo, H2 onboard terminals
  • Software - management of appliances, integrated systems, ticketing, etc...
  • Envision, multimedia PC that used a TV set as the monitor and had an infrared keyboard and remote control

Research

In 1994, Olivetti & Oracle Research Laboratory (Cambridge, England) developed the VNC. VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. Originally running on an ATM-connected thin client device, it was ported to other platforms, including Win32, Unix, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS. It is a remote display system which allows a thin client to remotely access a desktop GUI environment on another computer over the network.

Since it is platform independent, you can remotely run an Apple desktop from a Windows client, or a Unix desktop from an Apple client, and so on. The thin client (called the VNC viewer) is small enough to fit on a floppy or run from a Java-enabled web browser. Other features include the ability to share a desktop session with more than one client, and the "stateless" nature of the VNC viewer.

Associated companies

Notes

  1. ^ International Directory of Company Histories s.v. Olivetti, available at answers.com.
  2. ^ Jonathan M. Woodham, Twentieth Century Design, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0192842048. p. 160 and passim
  3. ^ Nathan H. Shapira, Renzo Zorzi, Design Process: Olivetti 1908-1978, catalogue of a show at the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery of UCLA, 1979.
  4. ^ See picture gallery at [1]
  • Old Computers Museum Olivetti Page
  • 1000BiT Olivetti Museum
  • About Us
  • The History of Olivetti
  • Olivetti Portable Typewriter Gallery
  • Old Calculator Museum - Olivetti Programma 101
  • Olivetti Programma 101, Francesco Bonomi 1999
  • Programma 101, L’invenzione del personal computer: una storia appassionante mai raccontata, Pier Giorgio Perotto
  • "Olivetti Lexicon 80, a work of art". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
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