Selenia Gp-16

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

Gp-16 had:^[8][9]

• 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

1. Gaspare Galati (2016). 100 years of radar. Springer. p. 214. ISBN 978-3-319-00584-3.
2. Il Mondo
3. Ing. Paolo M. De Gaetano Polverosi. "Un Ingegnere racconta" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 3, 2015.
4. Stefano Zavagli (23 March 2016). "Alberto, l'ingegnere che salva le vecchie glorie dei computer". La Stampa (in Italian).
5. 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.
6. Olivettiani.it: Ricordi di Mauro (iii)
7. Bozzo, Massimo (November 1996). La grande storia del computer: dall'abaco all'intelligenza artificiale (in Italian). Vol. 37. Edizioni Dedalo. p. 381. ISBN 9788822045379.
8. 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.
9. 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

• ENAV: GP-16/GP-160