In memory of Mario Tchou, the engineer who frightened America with Olivetti
Italy is the seat of great mysteries, or great misfortunes. One was the death, in a very short time, of the engineer Mario Tchou and Adriano Olivetti, the two fathers of an incredibly promising Italian electronics and computer science, so much so that they were seen as a threat by the main competitors, Americans and Germans. .
Who was Mario Tchou (or Mario Chou)? Mario Tchou was an engineer of Chinese origin, but of Italian studies. Born in 1924, he graduated from Torquato Tasso and began his studies at Sapienza, but with a scholarship he moved to study in the USA. Here he first acquires his doctorate, then begins teaching until he reaches Columbia University in New York.
Adriano Olivetti, at the push of Enrico Fermi, was interested in the construction of an Italian super calculator completely with transistors, therefore much more advanced than those of the time, operating on valves. A tool much more similar to our modern computers, even if the silicon "Chip" was still to come. Together they created the ELEA series Electronic Arithmetic (or Automatic) Processor, which from the 9003T model was a fully transistor electronic processor, much more advanced and faster than its competitors. Siemens, for example, still used valves in their computers. Tchou brings a young and extremely innovative team of researchers and engineers from Pisa to the electronic research headquarters in San Giuliano Milanese. ) 003T was a “Multitasking” machine being able to perform three operations at the same time.
Elea 9003
Tchou did not believe that Italian electronics had anything to envy anyone, neither American nor British, even if they enjoyed enormous public and defense investments that Olivetti did not have. Mario Tchou died at the age of 37 in a car accident in 1961. A mysterious accident in which his driver lost control of the car which crashed into a truck. An accident that occurred one year after the death of Adriano Olivetti. A year later Enrico Mattei died.
The Olivetti electronics division was then sold to General Electric and the development of Italian electronics took other paths. Of course it is very strange that Olivetti, Tchou and Mattei die within a year of each other. Casuality or drawing?
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The article In memory of Mario Tchou, the engineer who frightened America with Olivetti comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/in-ricordo-di-mario-tchou-lingegnere-che-con-olivetti-spavento-lamerica-e/ on Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:59:04 +0000.