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From: kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: What the world needs now [ is an exploding computer ]
Message-ID: <982@sputnik.COM>
Date: Fri, 5-Jun-87 11:55:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: sputnik.982
Posted: Fri Jun  5 11:55:46 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jun-87 07:04:20 EDT
References: <12067@topaz.rutgers.edu> <910@killer.UUCP> <15@gordon.UUCP> <2725@phri.UUCP> <200NU070156@NDSUVM1>
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Anyone ever hear of the Olivetti A5?  It was a small-business computer of
the mid 1970's, and had a microprocessor (8008 or less) wrapped up in a
bright red, hyperthyroidal Selectric-type typewriter.  The A5 was a
masterpiece of mechanical engineering.  Press a key on the (electronic)
keyboard.  The key press is converted to a six-bit code, which activates six
solenoids (!!) which push six push rods that run the width of the machine
(about three feet) to contact six microswitches, which in turn talk to the
microprocessor.  The push rods also moved the type ball somehow.  The type
head was large and heavy, so Olivetti installed a 1/2 hp electric motor to
run it all.  There were also millions of little nylon gears.  The A5 was
programmed with writable magnetic strip cards, each the size of a punch
card, and each containing 256 bytes of data.  There was also a connector in
the back for peripherals.

I worked for a company that made a disk drive for the A5.  With the drive,
you loaded a bootstrap on one mag-card, and the disk did the rest.  Well, as
it turned out, the printing mechanism on the A5 was not meant for continuous
duty.  After all, how much work could you if you always had to insert mag
cards.  With the disk, however, it could run all night doing reports.  We
went through A5's like crazy.  When they got old, they would scream (I mean
really scream) every time the type ball returned to the left of the platen.

I had worked for these guys for about six weeks when an A5 literally blew up
on me.  The type ball started to return, then suddenly the air was full of
plastic shrapnel as all those gears disintegrated under the awful torque of
that huge motor.  I should have been thinking of my close encounter with death
and disfigurement, but I was a sophomore, and all I could think of was
"Mother of God, I've killed a $14,000 computer.  At $5/hour, it's gonna
take...how long?"  I didn't feel better until they explained they took A5's
out of the office on a blotter about every three weeks.