The Tech Issue
ARCHIVIO opens its third editorial cycle: four thematic issues, each curated by a Guest Editor with deep expertise, offering access to worlds where past, present, and future converge.
The third issue, ARCHIVIO N°11, focuses on technology and is curated by Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, together with Cecilia Botta, technology historian and Head of Memories at Promemoria Group, the magazine’s publisher. Daniela Hamaui oversees editorial direction, while Alessandro Gori shapes the art direction.
The cover, designed by artist Ailadi, pays tribute to the early aesthetics of the digital age. Created using PETSCII, the character set of Commodore 8-bit computers, it evokes the visual language of technology in its formative years.
ARCHIVIO N°11 maps the international landscape of technology archives, tracing the roots of the digital revolution and exploring the places where our technological past is preserved, along with the collectors and institutions that recognized its cultural value.
The issue is structured in three sections — Stories, Institutions, Collectors & Collectives — and includes a special poster: an (in)complete mapping of Italy’s technology archives, researched by Promemoria Group and visually interpreted by Accurat.
Massimo Banzi,“Often the most important innovations are the ones people talk about the least. The 6502 powered machines that defined a generation: these computers processed dreams, turning teenagers into programmers and hobbyists into entrepreneurs.”
Guest Editor
Glimpse of the Month
The Man Behind the Microprocessor
Federico Faggin’s Legacy and Vision
A conversation between Federico Faggin and Massimo Banzi
“We are fascinated with creating machines built in our image. The microprocessor is arguably the greatest of them all.”
With these words, Federico Faggin—the man who ignited the computing revolution—summarizes a life dedicated to innovation. Born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1941 and holding a degree in physics from the University of Padua, Faggin brought Italian ingenuity to the cutting edge of Silicon Valley, where he moved in 1968. His career maps the history of modern computing. At Fairchild, he developed MOS silicon gate technology , the foundation for nearly all modern integrated circuits. Later, at Intel , he led the design of the Intel 4004 , the world’s first commercial microprocessor—an invention that literally changed the world.
