Olivetti Audit 930

Electric typewriter with strip punch

1959

The Audit 930 belongs to the Olivetti Telebanda series of punched tape machines, which were developed at the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s as auxiliary devices, in order to be able to produce an external storage medium independently of a central computer. From the punched tape, the data could be read into a computer, possibly after machine conversion. The tape punching device is built into the machine on all Olivetti models. The security of the strip punching is ensured by the purely mechanical connection of the punching device to the writing unit. Strip punching is highly variable due to the use of eight different punctuation marks and four different column separators (word marks). All service characters are punched automatically via the control bar, so setting is not at the operator's discretion. The word length is truly variable, corrections can be made in the simplest way via a correction key. Automatic locks ensure correct insertion of the punched strips and strip feeding. The punched tapes can be converted into Bull/IBM and Remington-Rand punched cards by the Olivetti CBS-120 conversion device with double speed, as well as read directly into the Bull/IBM/Remington-Rand, Electrologica and ZUSE computers. The machine was built from 1959 to 1965, it cost DM 6900 in 1965, the successor model has the designation Audit 1930.