An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962

Liam Proven wrote: Warning - long rambling response.... It was actually called the Programma 101, or "P101" for short. It was a stored-program desktop programmable calculator. Its development began in 1962. It was not introduced to the market in Europe until 1964, and wasn't available formally in the US market until the fall of 1965 (though some did make it into the US prior to then via informal methods). There were a number of other electronic calculators had come on the scene prior to the P101, including one machine that was also a stored program calculator called the Mathatronics Mathatron. Though the Mathatron did not have offline storage for its programs, it did use core memory which was non-volatile, so programs were not lost when the machine was powered off, while the P101 did lose its memory when turned off (it used magnetostrictive delay lines), making offline storage of programs and data more of a requirement. The Mathatron could do everything that the P101 could with the exception of magnetic card functionality, and it was introduced in the US almost two years prior to the P101. Was the Mathatron a personal computer? Not by my definition. The claim that the P101 was the first-ever "Personal Computer" is debatable, though the father of the machine, Pier Girogio Perotto, insisted that it was the first personal computer until the day he died. Before he died, I debated this with him via Email (though it was interesting, as I had to use translators to/from Italian). He was insistent despite my arguments to the contrary. In my opinion, the machine should be classed as one of the earliest desktop learn-mode programmable calculators (though it wasn't the first..the Mathatron was), not a personal computer. It had a lot of the characteristics of a computer, in that it was programmable, it had a magnetic card for writing out programs and data, and reading them back in. It had a serial printer that could both record output of calculations and programs, and could also list out programs. It was a numeric-only printer, with special characters for annotation (math function, memory register identification). It couldn't print general text. It could add, subtract, multiply and divide, along with calculating square root and absolute value as built-in functions. Programs had to be written for other functions such as logarithms and trig. It wasn't terribly fast, especially when executing programs, because each program step had to be "waited for" as it circulated through the delay line, and memory register access also was serial in nature. It was capable of simple conditional branching. It had a number of memory registers (quite limited) that could store variables and constants. The machine was an all transistor design (no ICs), and used a magnetostrictive delay line for register and program step storage. The keyboard and printer were heavy mechanical devices more reminiscent of a mechanical desktop calculator. Programs were "learned" into the machine by entering the steps from the keyboard a step at a time. It did not have peripheral interfacing capabilities, so the machine was what it was with no real means for expansion or additional peripheral devices. Given that it had very limited memory capacity, and variable storage registers were traded off for program steps, it could only do so much, though through clever use of the mag cards, programs could be "chained" and larger capacity for programs and data created. However, it required manual operation to load/unload cards, and slowed down the process. The machine was capable of some pretty amazing calculations, including its use by NASA for calculating antenna aiming information for the US Apollo spacecraft program. Personal computer? There were machines that significantly predated it that were more capable, and could be considered "personal". The Stanley Frankel-designed Royal McBee/General Precision LGP-30 (1956) was a true computer, that could easily be used at a personal level. It was fully programmable, had peripheral interfacing capabilities, had a versatile I/O typewriter that could do both text and numbers, and plugged into a standard electrical outlet. It had much more memory (magnetic drum-based), and much larger programs could be written, though in order to do math like could be done simply on the P101, math routines had to be written, along with I/O routines to accept input and print output. Monroe, in the early to mid-1950's had "desk-sized" (not desktop) machines called the Monrobot series that could do more than the P101 and were more computer-like in their later models. Clary also built the DE-60, another desk-sized programmable calculator that was computer-like. IBM's 610 "Auto-Point" calculator was a very capable stored program calculator/computer that could out-perform the P101, but it was quite large and expensive. All of these machines came about in the 1950's, quite a long time before the Programma 101 came out. These machines could potentially be considered "Personal Computers" before the P101 was even a concept. The Programma 101 was pretty simple to program, probably less complicated than these earlier machines, but that also limited it capabilities. The key things that the P101 had going for it was that it was a desktop machine (though rather large and heavy - 80 pounds), and it was comparatively inexpensive, selling for around $3900. These predecessors didn't fit on a desk (though the Mathatron was a desktop machine, though it took up quite a bit of square footage on an average desk), and were significantly more expensive. Was the P101 the first personal computer? My opinion is that it isn't, but then some might argue. Some consider the Berkeley SIMON computer, developed in the late 1940s, with articles on how to build the relay-based machine published in Radio Electronics in the early 1950's, to be the first personal computer. Some also consider HP's 9100A calculator (1968) the first personal computer. This calculator made everything developed prior to it look like a toy. It had much larger memory capacity, had logs and trig built-in, was an all-transistor microcoded design, and could interface to a significant number of peripherals including plotters, printers, extended memory, and even custom interfaces made for instrumentation control systems. But in my mind, it was still a calculator, though an extremely powerful one. My personal definition of the first real desktop personal computer would be the HP 9830. It had a full alphanumeric keyboard and display, was programmed in BASIC, had large memory capacity, could interface to a wide range of peripherals (plotters, printers, storage, instrumentation interfaces, telecommunications). It could be used as a calculator by simply typing in math expressions and pressing a key, and the answer would be displayed. It was introduced in 1972. It sat on a desk, and was easily usable in a productive fashion by anyone after spending a little time reading through the well-written manual. All that said, the P101 was an amazing machine for its time. It was immensely popular, and spawned some follow-on machines from Olivetti that improved on its capabilities. However, HP's domination of the high-end programmable calculator market beginning with the 9100A eventually knocked Olivetti out of that line of business, though Olivetti did stick with producing office calculators for some time. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com