.

=Historical overview=

The origins of Norsk Data go back to the development of digital computers at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment at Kjeller, Norway, where several early computers had been designed, such as the SAM and the SAM 2 aka FLINK .

The success of this program resulted in the founding of A/S Nordata - Norsk Data Elektronikk on August 8, 1967 by Lars Monrad Krohn, Per Bjørge and Rolf Skår. The company became a significant supplier of minicomputers to many research projects, in particular to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where they were chosen to produce the computers for their Nuclear Accelerator Project. The other market segments Norsk Data succeeded in were Norwegian municipality data centers, newspapers, as well as parts of the educational and university sector.

After a long period of great success, the Norsk Data empire collapsed in the early 1990s, mostly due to not realizing the impact of the Personal Computer revolution (as well as the growing competition from UNIX-based workstations). Norsk Data technology was continued by Dolphin Interconnect Solutions.

=Hardware=

Significant Norsk Data computer models include:

*NORD-1, 16-bit minicomputer launched in 1968, could run TSS (see below) from 1971 *NORD-5, 32-bit Supermini launched in 1972 *NORD-9 *NORD-10, 16-bit mini lauched in 1973 *NORD-10/S, version of the Nord-10 with cache, paging, and other improvements *NORD-50, second generation 32-bit supermini in 1975 *NORD-100, 16-bit, from 1978, later renamed ND-100. First single-board 16-bit minicomputer. *NORD-100/CE, Commercial Extended, with decimal arithmetic instructions (The decimal instruction set was later renamed CX) *ND-110/CX, improved ND-100 *ND-120/CX, improved ND-110 *ND-100 Satellite, small ND-100 system with support for either 5 or 9 terminals, in a small case. *ND-500, third generation 32-bit supermini in 1981 *ND-505, 28-bit computer allowed through the Eastern bloc embargo *ND-510/CX *ND-520 *ND-540 *ND-570/CX, world s fastest 32-bit supermini in 1983, 7.1 Whetstone (benchmark) million instructions per second *ND-580, multiple ND-570 CPU systems. *ND-5000, fourth generation 32-bit supermini in 1987 *ND-5700 *ND-5850, fifth generation 32-bit supermini in 1987 *ND-5902 and ND-5904, dual- and quad-CPU 5000 series machines

=Software=

In addition to hardware, Norsk Data also produced a wide range of system and application software:

*TSS – Nord Time sharing from 1971 *SINTRAN – Operating system for Nord 10 and later models, version III from 1973, III/VS in 1974 *SIBAS database management system in 1975 *Fortran Compiler *BASIC programming language compiler *COBOL compiler *Pascal programming language compiler developed in Kiel, Germany *PED – Programmer s EDitor Screen oriented text Editor *NOTIS – Integrated, modular word processing and database application suite *NORTEXT – typesetting system integrated with ND-NOTIS and SIBAS

A point of note: the World Wide Web originated when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the Enquire program on a SINTRAN III mini at CERN.

=External links=