 The Nord-1 | |
| Developer | Norsk Data |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Norsk Data |
| Product family | Nord |
| Type | Minicomputer |
| Generation | 2 |
| Release date | 1967 |
| Lifespan | 1967–1972 |
| Discontinued | 1973 |
| Units sold | 60 |
| Units shipped | 60 |
| Operating system | Sintran I |
| CPU | 16-bit |
| Camera | none |
| Touchpad | none |
| Predecessor | Simulation for Automatic Machinery (SAM) |
| Successor | Nord-10 |
Nord-1 was Norsk Data's first minicomputer and the first commercially available computer made in Norway.
It was a 16-bit system, developed in 1967 from the Simulation for Automatic Machinery. The first Nord-1 (serial number 2) installed was at the heart of a complete ship system aboard a Japanese-built cargo liner, the Taimyr.[1] 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 reliable for the time, with more than a year between failures.[2]
It was probably the first minicomputer to feature floating-point arithmetic equipment as standard, and had an unusually rich complement of hardware 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.[3] It was succeeded by the Nord-10.