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.