Olivetti ETS 1010 / 2010 - Syntrex Aquarius - what is the operating system?

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Hello, I soon will get my first Olivetti ETS wordprocessor system,a ETS 2010 with attached ET 111 typewriter, production start in 1983. There also used to be the older ETS 1010 from 1981 which typically was connected to the older ET 121 typewriter model. Like on the parallel existing Olivetti ETV series the typewriter acts as the keyboard and printer to the ETS system. But the ETS system was more flexible than this, it also could be used with a separate keyboard and a normal printer, I know that it has been combined with the Olivetti PR, DM and DY series of printers which consists of dot matrix (PR/DM) and daisywheel (PR, DY) printers. And that's not all, the ETS series (1010/2010) was able to be connected to a network harddisk as a file server, that means several ETS systems could share documents that way. This last thing differentiateds the ETS series a lot of the ETV series which was not designed as being capable of networking by Olivetti.

I am hunting for the ETS series machines already since more than a decade and now I have saved one 2010 near Munich and it's on the way to here. I personally know three more peoples having one, @wolfhess and ... Voldemort (let's call him that way as I would not name him as the ETS is the big reason of our disruption - please don't link his website) and my italian friend @pevalcas has one - but without the necessary typewriter or keyboard/printer. I also saw once a rosty piece in italian ebay, but that's it. Some computer and more generic museums or collections have some components or systems but without much detail descriptions. So these beasts are VERY rare.


That's my system, a 2010 with ET 111, saved by a friend and stored there now, waiting to travel to me soon.


That's the older 1010 with a ET 121 typewriter. I have such a 121 typewriter with the ETS kit already, but the ETS system is missing. This one is in the italian museum of Lombardy.

Both systems seems to be the smallest possible configuration, system plus typewriter. Here we see with the extra keyboard:






Source: https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/skladany-prospekt-olivetti-ets-2010-1981-rok-i9566194848.html
In this perspective it really looks like a personal computer, not much different than for example a M24 or M19.

Now to the main topic. For the ETV series it is well documented and I have most of the models in my collection, they run Z80 based CP/M 2.2 or 8088/V40/286 CPU based MS-DOS 3.20, some of the CP/M systems are ROM based (ETV 240, 210s, 300 rom-option, CWP-1 and don't need to boot from disk). When we search in the Internet there are only very little traces about the ETS series and they claim that the machines have Intel 8088 or 8086 for the ETS 1010 and 80186 for the 2010 and some sources write that it is CP/M 86. But is that true? From wolfhess I have four disk images (boot, system, services, and document-builder) of his machine and when it is CP/M there must be any copyright informations from Digital Research Inc (DRI). There are no.

The only manufacturer string I can find is
- Olivetti ETS 2.0
- Copyright Ing. C.Olivetti & C S.p.A. All Rights Reserved


No "digital" string in the image, searching for "dri" only finds three times the english word "drive" in error messages.









But we see proof for the network (?) attached harddisk (HDU in Olivetti speech always means "hard disk unit") support, the boot diskette contains the tooling to initialize the harddisk of 5, 10 or 15 megabytes. The search for "ets" has also some findings and interestingly the socumet builder only has text with ETS 1010 and not 2010. So at least I hope that one day when I also get hands on a 1010 that it will work with the disks of the 2010.

And I see the original owner of the machine where the disks come:


Stern brewery in Essen, Germany, closed since long ago.

So from the disk images I can not answer what is the operating system of the ETS series. I came to the idea that maybe PCOS? This is Olivetti's own operating system for the M20, but this one used different CPU, Zilog Z8001 and the disk format is already different.

Searching deeper the internet...

Really hard to find informations, 99% are now undeliverable offers for ribbons, toner, correction-tapes, ... hard to filter out all of that rubbish. And some promising links end in invalid URLs.

Here we have a video in italian about the ETS machines

It even talks about more configs and versions, with 30 and 60 MB harddisk.

Something more: https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/56962/Olivetti-ETS-2010-with-ET-115-Typewriter/

--> ETS 1010 originally by Syntrex

Then I found this... http://www.1000bit.it/ad/bro/syntrex/SyntrexAquarius2.pdf


The system box looks the same (ugly) as the ETS 1010, and the monitor as well. But the keyboard is different.


And this, the typewriter looks different, but when comparing to the Olivetti typewriters, the keyboard and the knobs look the same as ET 121. So it is a ET 121 in white.

Syntrex...


Source: http://archive.informationdisplay.org/Portals/InformationDisplay/IssuePDF/V00N00-1981-6 June.pdf
Multiple "Windows" to open multiple documents, copying content from one to another document and all such things sounds very advanced for it's time.

Continued...

 

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We have a little thread about them here... https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/syntrex.21625/
@jimmyd , @slowtony , @baron95 , @ggthompson5 , @craigdallen , @crusader27529 , @wombat , @Riososa68 , @Deb_Campbell , @EdR , @RSM_Rocky

And yes, I knew for Syntrex already long time, but I didn't manage to get that system 2 years ago, but now I am more lucky. https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?t...essor-for-syntrex-aquarius-ii-system.1244113/

All these peoples worked for Syntrex or with Syntrex and their products and they are (or were?) member of this forum. Wow... So let's look what they write about the software

crusader27529 wrote:

Again, the OS was most definitely NOT CP/M based ...

The SW guys were every way as good as the HW people were, and the system worked on an Intel 8086 running at 8MHZ, and the performance they got out of the system was primarily due to the Unix-like software. The kernal was built by a gut named Charles Haley who worked with the K&R pair who invented the C language, and designed the initial Unix. The rest of the SW was done be a talented buch of programmers(mostly from Bell Labs) nmanaged by Phil Chevren and Scott Hendersen, all very smart. I was initially the only SW person(I really am a HW person) that wasn't part of the primary SW support. I wrote ALL the code used for diagnostics, manufacturing support & testing, and eventually had 3 others working for me.

wombar wrote:

In general, Syntrex software was outstanding. Extremely stable and super advanced for its time. This was years before the IBM PC. It had complex management features with full tape backup, archiving and restore capability, a sophisticated mail-merge function, and great reporting features. It had a CP/M emulator and we ran a custom timekeeping app on it, written in dBASE II. There was even a game for it -- a Zork-style dungeons game which ran on an Aquarius. It was on a special bootable diskette.

@Chuck(G) claims in that thread that he has materials on the system but these websites are now dead or have bad certificates and can't be opened anymore. Please Chuck, can you post your things again? Disk images also would be welcome to add them to my collection and try them when my 2010 is here.

See also: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/complete-3m-text-editor-word-processor-computer.16763/ - unfortunatelly the pictures have gone, Syntrex system with the 3M logo and a case design changed Olivetti typewriter. Looks like one photo has been preserved here: https://woorkup.com/switching-from-windows-pc-to-mac/



Compare:


This is my ET 121 with ETS kit, it has the same little extra keyboard.

And I found a german Wikipedia article on Syntrex, but no english one, or other language: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntrex
- SOS Syntrex Operating system, Berkeley based Unix operating system,
- Gemini/Virgo fileservers with keyword indexing to find dockuments easy and fast, up to 15 fileservers in a cluster
- Word processing software
- Database software called document-builder - it looks like I have that diskette
- Electronic mail
- 8086 based terminal - that should be the ETS series and Syntrex Aquarius I/II - with soft scrolling (realized in hardware)
- Could be combined with typewriters of Olivetti, IBM (wheelwriter) and Brother

According to the Wikipedia article Olivetti shared 19% of Syntrex, other source tells 25%, in 1987 Syntrex partially also was owned by U-Bix/Konica and Mitsubishi, but the MS-DOS based wordprocessings killed then the company. Also at Olivetti the 2010 of 1983 was the last model, then they focused on the ETV series at that time still CP/M based, with the ETV 260/500 then in 1986 MS-DOS based. And with that Olivetti in theory had all the networking possibilities of that era of PC in the ETV system, one of my 260 came with Kirschbaum-link over serial interface network driver. A big customer of Syntrex was the US government organisations and here in Europe I was told that the ETS was successfull specially in the EC offices at Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Brüssel and some of the big European banks. 1992 bancrupt at Chapter 11 after they failed to transfer it's solution to PC or transform the company into a networking company.

Back to the diskettes, if that is Berkeley Unix based, there should be some copyright marks in the boot disk? Searched through them, but no finding.

The boot disk IMD file is just 112 kb in size, containing a Unix operating system plus word processor software with such advanced functions like display two or more documents in "Windows" and capable of copy&paste from one to another document?

So currently I am as clever as before...

assumption: Maybe the Gemini/Virgo fileserver (at Olivetti "HDU" called box) was running on a Berkeley Unix basded system, but the Aquarius / ETS "terminal" system on something proprietary? Above we read about CP/M 86 emulation, but probably not on the standard diskettes as I have?

Maybe I find out more when my system arrives and it still works, then I may see how it behaves on booting and probably it is possible to exit from the software to see a command prompt?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Please Chuck, can you post your things again?

I don't know if I can still find them--if so, I'll post what I have. It may take some time, as I'm still recuperating from surgery and tend to sleep rather than compute. Perhaps another VCF user downloaded them...

 

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So the ETS 2010 is now here. But before I can set it up and play with it, I have to finish other machines to have the space on the desk.

But I checked the user manual and the wordprocessing software has quite impressive functions for it's time, much more powerfull than the Olivetti ETV series which I know quite well. I think some of the functions only came back to a wordprocessor software much later again. And some functions even in modern wordprocessing software still doesn't exist.

- it asks for username. This is used for example for version history of documents
- it asks for time/date. This is used for example for version history of documents
- it supports read/print-only and modify passwords of 7 characters length individually for each document
- it uses variables in the documents to automatically insert date/time, page numbers and so on in the documents
- it supports foot-notes and end-notes
- it can display up to four "windows" to display different areas of the same document or different documents at the same time
- it supports copy & paste between the windows
- it indexes the documents and it knows by name on which diskette which document is, so if one document refers to another, it will ask to change the diskette to access it
- it supports different pitches and "fonts" with the daiswheel, so if you change the style in the text, at printing the system will stop and ask for daisywheel change, and it tells you to insert the correct daisywheel by it's font name, like Venezia, Times, Gothic, Orator, or whatever the user defined for the printed paragraph, line or word.
- it supports an undo-function in the document, so you can revert some last changes
- it supports stop-marks where the user has to input things in the text for printing
- it supports often repeated fixed text modules which easily and quickly can be inserted in documents, if you change them centrally they will be changed in all documents where you use them
- it already uses the idea of a trashcan for deleted documents and paragraphs from where they can be undeleted again
- it supports automatic numbering of paragraphs, headlines and lists, it even supports deeper numbering levels like "1.", "1.1", "1.2", "1.3" up to 6 levels. It can use numbers, letters, roman numerals and you can even define your own like "first", "second", ... with different separators
- it supports tables and it is able to add the values of the table by column and lines into a sum
- it also can calculate little more complex formulas than just sum, it also can calculate with percent %
- it has a build in calculator with accumulator memory
- it supports a simple kind of macros to automatize workflows, even with programming loops
Additionally I have the document builder diskette which is also explained in the manual:
- it supports automatized serial letters, like fixed text automatically filled with adress list (the ETV can do this as well)
- forms to fill in with individual typed content or inserted automatically from lists/database
- working with predefined text modules to build letters from it (maybe you know "1ST Mail" on Atari ST???)
- some kind of database for adresses, warehouse, part-lists (bom) and other things which can be sorted, filtered and selected on different properties (is, greater, smaller, ...) then use record or go to next one

In the manual nowhere is a word about Syntrex and no way described to exit the software to get to an OS prompt.

 

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By the way, when going to bed yesterday I still thought on this ETS thing. It gives daiswheels 'names', for documents it doesn't talks about drives and diskettes, file systems, pathes, just 'names' of folders, domains and documents. The databases are based on 'names'. Text modules have 'names'. Users have 'names'. If you want to open a document it asks for the diskette by 'name'. Also the three system disks, boot, wordprocessor and document builder have 'names'.

And the manual says (translation from german to english, for some words there are multiple translations which would make sense):
- The diskette is the 'folder' and it has a name (here the folder is an analogy to a paper folder in an office)
- There are domains/paragraphs with indexes/registers in the folder (diskette) and it has a name. Maybe "project" or "topic" would be better instead of "domain" in modern speech?
- The document, databases, textmodules (etc) have a name and they are organized in the domain and they are quick locateable through the register.
So there is a hirarchical system on that, and all is based on 'names', it also mentions harddisks as storage for the user content, all more or less in a kind of self organizing hirarchical structures.

The only thing it differentiates here is that the three system disks always have to be inserted in the left drive, and all user data disks in the right drive or on the networked multi user harddisk.

This is totally different from what we know about MS-DOS, CP/M and *NIX operating systems, there everything has a file with path and name. But then I found an interesting analogy:


It's a bit more advanced as it does not asking for DF0:, DF1:, ... but "any drive". And the Commodore friends are proud that their Amiga-OS was object orientated before object orientation was defined. But otherwise Amiga-OS is still based on filenames while Syntrex-OS / ETS seems to know which document 'name' is in which 'domain' in which 'folder' and will request the diskette containing that folder.

I think just from studying the user manual of the ETS system that this one seems to be object orientated as well, but 3..4 years before Amiga-OS.

This is quite exciting and I need to play with it to better understand.

 

[DocMueller]

Hello, my name ist Joachim. From 1979 I was supporting, consulting, programming and more on Syntrex Systems. If anybody have question on Syntrex or the apropriate Olivetti Systems I can try to answer. But in fact I am still in business and please be sorry if my answers are delayed.
The operating System was fully Unix Berkeley Version, startign with Berkeley Unix Version 1, which was never going to market. The manufactorer was Syntrex and so the OS was called "Syntrex Operating System" (SOS) running on i80186. The whole production Hardware and Software was completely done by Syntrex, also all sheet metal processing, painting and PCB assembly and Software Development. Has been visiting Syntrex in 1985. I also put the Information on Wiki under "Syntrex".
So far for today, Will read the whole post and answer some question.
Good luck with your Aquarius/ETS.
Joachim
DOCUMENT BUILDER is file based Database using free definition of database objects - remember well, was so comprehensive...