Pier Giorgio Perotto

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PG Perotto (front left)
with the Programma 101 team

Pier Giorgio Perotto (born December 24, 1930 in Turin , † January 23, 2002 in Genoa ) was an Italian electrical engineer.

Live and act

Perotto was born in Turin. The family came from Cavaglià . In 1952 he completed a degree in electrical engineering at the Politecnico di Torino , the Technical University of Turin, where he graduated in aeronautical engineering the following year . He worked in aerodynamics research and at the age of 27 he received a teaching qualification in mechanics .

Olivetti "Programma 101"

Front view of Programma 101 , at The National Museum of Computing , Bletchley Park

He was especially known for the development of the Olivetti programmable computer " Programma 101 " (P 101, also called "La Perottina"), which is considered to be one of the first personal computers . The "Programma 101" was first presented in 1965 at the BEMA exhibition (Exhibition of Machines for Office Automation) in New York . It was the first type of personal computer to be tailored to the needs of a company and office work. The device, the size of a desktop calculator ( adding machine ), was offered for sale by Olivetti in 1965 and 44,000 calculating machines were produced. The NASA bought ten models and used them to the radio traffic of Apollo 11 to control.

With the Olivetti Programma 101, it was possible for the first time in the history of EDP to acquire a "small" programmable computer on which your own programs could easily be saved on magnetic cards. The starting price, however, was around 14,800 DM plus VAT (the equivalent of around 8,000 euros). The capacity of the built-in runtime memory was around 240 bytes. This computer did not yet have a microprocessor , its CPU was made up of transistors and worked internally with 8 bits in eight 22-digit work registers. These could be split into two 11-digit registers. The data could be uploaded serially to the magnetic wire memory with a magnetic head.

Later, until the advent of the IBM personal computer , Perotto developed other models (e.g. Olivetti P6060 ).

In 1978 he became the founder and head of Elea SpA (Olivetti Group).

Other Projects

In the course of his career, Perotto worked on numerous projects, for example an optical character recognition system that was not fully developed for commercial reasons. Another innovative project by Perotto at the beginning of the 1970s was the Olivetti TC 800 , a terminal with processing capability.

Perotto garden in Cavaglià

On January 23, 2002, Perotto died of a tumor disease .

Honourings and prices

  • November 19, 1982 the Osservatorio San Vittore named the asteroid " 12222 Perotto " in the asteroid belt after him.
  • In 1991 Perotto received the “Premio Leonardo da Vinci” award for the realization of the world's first personal computer and the technical solutions associated with it.

Fonts (selection)

  • Automazione system. tape 1 : Servosistemi . UTET, Turin 1970, OCLC 889406170 (Italian).
  • Automazione system. tape 2 : Calcolatori elettronici . UTET, Turin 1974, OCLC 889408489 (Italian).
  • Manager 2000 (=  Economia e management . No. 30 ). Sperling & Kupfer , Milan, 1987, ISBN 88-200-0646-4 (Italian).
  • Darwinismo managerial. The nuovo principle e la strategia dell'innovazione . Il Sole 24 Ore Libri, Milan 1988, OCLC 846923681 (Italian).
  • Changing structures and engineers of the future . In: Sustainable Development . tape 1 , no. 1 , 1993, ISSN  1099-1719 , pp. 12-24 , doi : 10.1002 / sd.3460010107 (English, Italian: L'origine del futuro . 1990.).
  • Il paradosso dell'economia (=  La società industriale e postindustriale ). FrancoAngeli, Milan 1993, ISBN 88-204-7851-X (Italian).
  • Cambiare pelle per salvare la pelle. Una nuova strategia basata su scenari, architetture e creatività per il rilancio delle aziende negli anni '90 (=  Skill . No. 7 ). FrancoAngeli, Milan 1994, ISBN 88-204-8885-X (Italian).
  • Program 101. L'invenzione del personal computer. Una storia appassionante mai raccontata (=  La vita delle imprese ). Sperling & Kupfer Editori, Milan 1995, ISBN 88-200-2111-0 (Italian).
  • Come fare carriera nelle aziende dell'era digital. Manuale scandaloso di management (=  La societa industriale e postindustriale. Sec. 2: Saggi , no. 0052 ). FrancoAngeli, Milan 2001, ISBN 88-464-2644-4 (Italian).
  • P101. Quando l'Italia inventò il personal computer . Edizioni di comunità, Rome / Ivrea 2015, ISBN 978-88-98220-39-7 (Italian).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Pier Giorgio Perotto, quando l'Olivetti inventò il PC. storiaolivetti.it, accessed November 14, 2016 (Italian).
  2. ↑ a b Piergiorgio Perotto. Storia Informatica, accessed November 14, 2016 (Italian).
  3. ^ Corrado Bonfanti: 'Pier Giorgio Perotto, una vita da ricordare. In: Mondo Digitale . No. 2 , June 2002, p. 72-77 ( archivio-mondodigitale.aicanet.net [PDF]).
  4. ↑ Curiosità sulla “Perottina” - Museo Tecnologicamente. In: museotecnologicamente.it. Retrieved November 14, 2016 .
  5. ↑ 2008/107/1 Computer, Programma 101, and documents (3), plastic / metal / paper / electronic components, hardware architect Pier Giorgio Perotto, designed by Mario Bellini, made by Olivetti, Italy, 1965–1971. powerhousemuseum.com, accessed November 14, 2016 .
  6. ^ David W. Whittle: NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project in Houston, Texas. (PDF) February 16, 2006, accessed on November 14, 2016 (English, interview with Sandra Johnson).
  7. ↑ Olivetti Programma 101. on technikum29.de, accessed on November 14, 2016.
  8. ↑ Andreas Stiller: From aftertaste and foretaste. In: c't . heise.de, January 10, 2005, accessed on November 14, 2016 .
  9. ^ Giorgio Perotto Pier: Character recognition apparatus. In: google.it. Retrieved November 14, 2016 .
  10. ^ Giorgio Perotto Pier: Method and apparatus for reading characters. In: google.it. Retrieved November 14, 2016 .
  11. ↑ TC 800: un sistema innovativo per l'automazione di agenzia on storiaolivetti.it.
  12. ↑ Olivetti TC 800 financial terminal system - YouTube.
  13. ^ Morto il padre del personal computer. on piergiorgioperotto.it.
  14. ↑ 12222 Perotto (1982 WA) in the JPL Small-Body Database. (English).
  15. ↑ Catalogo collezioni - Calcolatore progammabile da tavolo Olivetti Programma 101. - museoscienza.
personal data
SURNAME Perotto, Pier Giorgio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian electrical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Turin
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 2002
Place of death Genoa