website/content/museum/olivetti-p6040.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Olivetti P6040	Computers	Transportable	Italy	1977	Intel 8080	name company company_name specs tabs photos comments oc_id source P6040 /companies/olivetti Olivetti label value NAME P6040 label value MANUFACTURER Olivetti label value TYPE Transportable label value ORIGIN Italy label value YEAR 1977 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Tiny BASIC interpreter label value KEYBOARD Alphanumeric 72 keys with calculator keypad label value CPU Intel 8080 label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 2 KB expandable to 4 KB (1 to 3 KB of user RAM) label value ROM 16 KB label value TEXT MODES 16 chars x 1 line diode display label value SIZE / WEIGHT 36 (W) x 40.6 (D) x 11.6 (H) cm. / 7.8 kg. label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2.5 label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS RS232 adapter and specific Olivetti interface called IPSO label value PRICE $4,500 (USA)\ About $60,000 including specific software developement according to custommers needs photos title subtitle text image KEYBOARD A complete keyboard, but it was probably not easy to type text as the letter keyboard layout was alphabetical order null title subtitle text image DISPLAY & PRINTER Red diode 16 character display and alphanumeric printer null title subtitle text image DISK DRIVE Olivetti disk drive with a 2.5" mylar minidisc null author date text Geoff Greig (Australia) Sunday 11th November 2012 Just before I left Olivetti in the dealers division in Australia, the manager of that section had all the state reps fly to Sydney for the release of the P6040 to be used as a low end Ledger machine (combined with a small printer) to replace the A2. This was just around the time when screen based PC''s were coming out, hence few P6040''s were ever sold author date text Ned (USA) Thursday 28th July 2011 As I recall, the selling price in the US was around $4,500. author date text Mark Schmitt (USA) Friday 3rd March 2006 This was the first "computer" I ever touched. It was my senior year in high school, 1978-79, so I would guess this was made in 77 or 78. Our public high school suddenly had one of these, and no teacher knew what to do with it. Four or five of us got hold of a BASIC book and tried to figure out if we could make any of the programs work. I think we might have programmed some sort of dice game. I think we had to write our own random number generator, though. author date text Bluecher2000 (Germany) Saturday 5th July 2003 Hello, does anybody know where to get a new rubber band for the P6040 disk drive? The original one has lost its elasticity. 836 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608073134/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=836 2023-06-08

Although the P6040 was very like a calculator, it was a real computer featuring 16 KB ROM, 2 KB RAM and a tiny BASIC programming language.

A three position selector allowed to enter a BASIC program (LOAD position), execute (EXECUTE) or debug by running one instruction at a time (STEP). Sadly, out of the 2 KB of available RAM, only one was available for BASIC program and variables. Hopefully, an optional 2 KB RAM extension was available.

Programs could be listed or executed using the red diode display or the built-in alphanumeric printer. They was saved on Olivetti specific 2.5" 3 KB mylar minidiscs through the built in disc drive.

Three versions of the P-6040 were sold. The first allowed programs to be created, edited and executed; the second only allowed programs to be read from the minidisc and executed; the third, stangely, allowed programs to be created and saved but not executed.

Thanks to Steven Williams for the donation of his P6040!
Thanks to Gérard Touitou for information and pictures