This Word Processor was originally produced by Syntrex Inc. Eatontown, New Jersey and sold under the brand of Olivetti. This was in 1980 (Version 1 of Syntrex Operating System was not sold); in 1981 the completely redesigned Version was sold with the system worldwide.
The picture shows the base unit of the ETS 1010 (Electronic Typing System) It came with a display unit and one could attach an electronic typewriter (usually an ET121 or ET221) or a keyboard.
The cabinet socket plugged into a central storage device which could support 8 or 16 ETS units at a time plus 2 printers. There was a 10 MB hard drive option (later 20 MB Winchester HDD) which was the size of a chest freezer.
A variety of daisy wheel printers could be used with the system: PR430 / DY310 / DY450 / ET121 / ET221
There also existed an ETS2010 which was an updated version. It used an 80186 CPU, had more memory and was compabitable with all data on ETS1010.
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Contributor: Robert Scrivener, Dr. Joachim Mueller, Charles Moss
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In the 80s I was a regional field service engineer in the UK supporting ETS1010, ETS2010, TES401 and TES621/601 systems along with the full range of ET typewriters and M series computer systems.
I remember being on the first training course in the UK for the ETS1010. At the time this was a ground breaking system that put other similar products in the shade. The only technical limiting factor was the durability of the floppy disk drives but this was nothing that an oscilloscope, test floppy disk, screwdrivers and a bit of skill couldn’t sort out. The 2010 was a huge improvement on an already great product. Far more reliable. The ETS2040 would have been a brilliant platform for multiuser word processing but came out at a time when I guess PCs and early word processing packages were taking hold of the market.
These were great times. I suppose towards the end of computers being fixable with tools and a soldering iron and moving into the disposable products that we now have.
Monday 15th November 2021
Chris Marshall (UK)
I worked at Syntrex 1985-86 on the production floor and in customer service. Most of the units we built had zodiac names. The terminals were called Aquarius and I think the hard drive cabinets were Geminis. The hard drives were huge, like a suit case, and about 150 meg each. The smaller ones were just coming out in 1986 and were about the same physical size of the ones made now at 10-30 meg.
Sunday 2nd December 2012
James Dye (New Jersey, USA)
I actually worked for the company that made these for Olivetti. They were made in Eatintown nJ by Syntrex Inc. The os was a proprietory one called SOS and was somewhat like a unix system. The features were ahead if the times.
Monday 16th January 2012
Davo
NAME
ETS 1010
MANUFACTURER
Olivetti
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
Italy
YEAR
??? Unknow
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Unknow
KEYBOARD
Unknow
CPU
Intel 8088
SPEED
Unknow
RAM
128 KB
ROM
Unknown
TEXT MODES
Unknow
GRAPHIC MODES
Unknow
COLORS
greenish monochrome monitor
SOUND
Unknown
SIZE / WEIGHT
15 x 13 x 7 inches
I/O PORTS
Communication port, Cabinet socket, Keyboard socket, Monitor socket, Power input
BUILT IN MEDIA
2 x 5''1/4 disk-drives
OS
Olivetti own OS which was actually CPM/86 customised.