A freshly minted Engineer Massimo Rinaldi (right), 24,  and father Giulio Rinaldi (left), on Massimo's graduation day on November 20, 1953, with his advanced degree in engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome.

Massimo's mother was Alessandra Latini, from a famous ancient family of Collalto Sabino (see Archive). Massimo was offered a position to stay at the university, in the aerospace department with Professor Broglio, but Massimo had other ambitions.

Before attending La Sapienza University, Massimo helped manage the family construction company,  inherited from his grandfather with the same first and last name, along with his father, Giulio.

After completing his engineering studies, Massimo worked as the Assistant to the Chair of Electrical Measurements at the same university. Massimo married on June 18, 1955 to Mrs. Eliana d'Agata and began his career as an electronic and design engineer, specializing in telecommunications and pulse technology, at Hasler AG., Rome, 1953-1957 and subsequently at Selenia Industrie Elettronica Associate S.p.A., as a Radar and Telemetry Director, 1957-1959. Massimo and Eliana had four children together: Paolo, Claudia, Stefano, and Fabio. 

In 1959, Massimo Rinaldi left Selenia and founded Transimatic Italiana S.p.A. in Rome, initiating the production of fully-solid state statistical calculators from his home garage.

By early 1963 (before March), the company had moved from Massimo's home garage to Via di Villa Massimo, n.21, Roma. Very soon after, on March 8th,  1963, Massimo filed a remarkably broad patent in Italy covering his gateway technology for viewing output data. The first claim of this of this astonishingly broad patent seizes on principles of human visual physiology, namely an optical illusion called "persistence of vision" or "flicker fusion." In Massimo's first claim (translated from Italian): 

"A device for the numerical presentation of data stored in electronic circuits, characterized by the fact that the presentation of the various digits is done over time, one at a time, at a rate that makes them appear simultaneously thanks to the inertia of the element or the persistence of the image."

Massimo produced a series of these statistical calculators and between 1962 and 1963 (inclusive) produced and sold the Transimatic Italiana ED 114 statistical calculator/computer. It featured connectors in the back for both two tape readers and one punch unit (also shown below). Researchers often used it to analyze psychophysical data representing time delay intervals in human response time to various sensory stimuli. A 59-page Transimatic Italiana products pamphlet from late 1962, featuring all their products, has survived. 

Massimo Rinaldi's Transimatic Italiana ED 114 therefore appears to be the very first solid state desktop electronic calculator to be marketed and sold to paying business customers, predating Massimo's commercial IME 84 by nearly two years. 

At the time, Transimatic Italiana was supported by loans from Cassa del Mezzogiorno. However, to secure its position in a sector dominated by major companies like Olivetti and multinational giants like IBM, it soon became essential for Transimatic Italiana to find an industrial partner with deep pockets and connections, for a nominal production capacity of 150 units a day.

It took Massimo nearly a year to secure financing and establish infrastructure through a partnership. In that period Italy was recovering from World War II, with significant poverty and financial instruments largely reserved for a small elite group of individuals and companies, such as Olivetti.
 
Massimo consulted with Olivetti several times for a possible partnership, but Olivetti considered the elma 3000 (Massimo's prototype for the IME 84; see below) useless to them because "It doesn't print" and because "if necessary we have internal human and financial resources to develop this kind of product independently."
 
Then, in late 1963, after a nearly year-long search, by showing various corporate entities his four elma 3000 computers and business plan (Massimo's handwritten first draft of the IME business plan survives), Massimo Rinaldi finally sold a controlling share of Transimatic Italiana to the Edison group for 440,000,000 Lira (see original document below) (4,748,984 USD in 2024), while continuing to serve as the Director of Research and Development, where he directed a team of technicians working under him.

The company was renamed Industria Macchine Elettroniche S.p.A. (IME) on March 9, 1964 (see document archive below concerning date of the IME corporate minutes). Hence, any "IME" advertisements or announcements will be no earlier than this date. Massimo was a member of the IEER, Association Dimore Storiche Italiane.

Massimo also had many hobbies. Underwater photography was a passion Massimo shared with his family since the early 1970's. From the very first Calypso, to all the Nikonos models, Nikonos II, III, IV and V. Massimo also had the original underwater reflex housing from both Rolliflex and Hasselblad. In the very early 1980s, when the very first "VHS-C Videos" were released, a special underwater housing was also built. Other hobbies included amateur radio and medieval castle restoration.

Massimo dived in many seas of the world: Mediterranean (Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Turkey, etc.), Caribbean, Bahamas, Hawaii, Seychelles, Mauritius, etc.

Massimo Rinaldi was born on February 21, 1929, in Rome, and passed away on August 16, 2009, at 80 years old.

Photo from Massimo Rinaldi's collection and kind thanks to Massimo Rinaldi's family.