NORD-1
Encyclopedia
The NORD-1 was Norsk Data
's first minicomputer
. It was the first commercially available computer made in Norway
.
It was a 16-bit system, developed in 1967. The first NORD-1 (serial number 2) installed was at the heart of a complete ship system aboard the M/S Taimyr, a Japanese-built cargo liner. The system included bridge control, power management, load condition monitoring and the first ever computer-controlled, radar-sensed anti-collision system (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid
). Taimyr's NORD-1 turned out remarkably reliable for the time, with more than a year between failures.
It was probably the first minicomputer to feature floating-point equipment as standard, and had an unusually rich complement of registers for its time. It also featured relative addressing, and a fully automatic context switched interrupt system.
It was also the first minicomputer to offer virtual memory, offered as an option by 1969.
It was succeeded by the NORD-10
.
was already a very large and exceedingly rapidly growing corporation by the time many of these machines were decommissioned.
Norsk Data
Norsk Data was a computer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1992, it had its most active period in the years from the early 1970s to the late 1980s...
's first minicomputer
Minicomputer
A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...
. It was the first commercially available computer made in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
It was a 16-bit system, developed in 1967. The first NORD-1 (serial number 2) installed was at the heart of a complete ship system aboard the M/S Taimyr, a Japanese-built cargo liner. The system included bridge control, power management, load condition monitoring and the first ever computer-controlled, radar-sensed anti-collision system (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid
Automatic Radar Plotting Aid
A marine radar with automatic radar plotting aid capability can create tracks using radar contacts. The system can calculate the tracked object's course, speed and closest point of approach , thereby knowing if there is a danger of collision with the other ship or landmass.Development of ARPA...
). Taimyr's NORD-1 turned out remarkably reliable for the time, with more than a year between failures.
It was probably the first minicomputer to feature floating-point equipment as standard, and had an unusually rich complement of registers for its time. It also featured relative addressing, and a fully automatic context switched interrupt system.
It was also the first minicomputer to offer virtual memory, offered as an option by 1969.
It was succeeded by the NORD-10
NORD-10
NORD-10 was a medium-sized general-purpose 16-bit minicomputer designed for multilingual time-sharing applications and for real-time multiprogram systems, produced by Norsk Data. It was introduced in 1973...
.
Remaining machines
The NORD-1 has been unusually well-preserved. Approximately 60 machines seem to have been produced, and at the very least 10 machines have been preserved, including serial numbers 2, 4, and 5. This may owe to the fact that the company Norsk DataNorsk Data
Norsk Data was a computer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1992, it had its most active period in the years from the early 1970s to the late 1980s...
was already a very large and exceedingly rapidly growing corporation by the time many of these machines were decommissioned.