Norsk Data

The characteristic ND dotted logo used from 1973

Norsk Data was a (mini-) computer manufacturer located inOslo,Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1992, it had its most active period in the years from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. At the company's peak in 1987 it was the second largest company in Norway and employed over 4,500 people.

Throughout its history Norsk Data produced a long string of extremely innovative systems, with a disproportionately large number of world firsts. Some examples of this are theNORD-1, the first minicomputer to have memorypaging as a standard option, and the first machine to have floating-point instructions standard, theNORD-5, the world's first 32-bit minicomputer (beating theVAX, often claimed the first, by 6 years)

Historical overview [ edit ]

Norsk Data-Elektronikk in 1971

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

The success of this program resulted in the founding of A/S Nordata - Norsk Data Elektronikk on August 8, 1967 byLars Monrad Krohn, Per Bjørge andRolf Skår. The company became a significant supplier of minicomputers to many research projects, in particular toCERN inGeneva,Switzerland, where they were chosen to produce the computers for many projects, starting with theSPS Project, Norsk Data's international breakthrough contract. The other market segments Norsk Data succeeded in were process control, Norwegian municipal administration data centers, newspapers, as well as parts of the educational, health, and university sector.

For a period in 1987, Norsk Data was the second largest company by stock value in Norway, second only toNorsk Hydro, and employed over 4,500 people.

In March 1991, shortly afterJanuary Events, Norsk Data donated the first computer to Lithuanian Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. This donation started the development ofLITNET - Academic and Research Network inLithuania. Later that year, the network connection lines, directly connectingVilnius toMoscow, were shut down. With the help of the hardware, again donated by Norsk Data, Lithuania was able to use its first satellite-based Internet connection , which operated at 9,6 kbit/s. This was the first Lithuanian communications line that was totally independent from formerSoviet Union.

After a long period of exceptional success, the Norsk Data "empire" collapsed in the early 1990s, mostly due to not realizing the impact of thePC revolution (as well as the growing competition fromUNIX-basedworkstations). Norsk Data technology was continued byDolphin. See more about Norsk Data here (Norwegian) . Norsk Data was purchased by Telenor and went through several rebrands and relaunches.

Notable innovations [ edit ]

Throughout the times, Norsk Data produced a long string of extremely innovative computers. Some examples of this include:

• TheNORD-1, the firstminicomputer to have memory paging as a standard option, and the first machine to have floating-point instructions standard
• TheNORD-5, the world's first 32-bit minicomputer - beating theVAX, often claimed to be first - by 6 years
• TheNORD-100, a very early application ofbitslicing in minicomputers
• The KPS (Knowledge Process System), developed in joint venture withRacal plc, a system which pioneered running a multi-userLISP machine environment

Post-breakup companies [ edit ]

Although the Norsk Data breakup caused a large number of layoffs, a large number of employees and intellectual property lived on in various smaller companies. Some went bankrupt quite quickly, some were bought for tax purposes.

The Hardware Research and Development group was split off into Dolphin Server Technology in 1989. Dolphin later split off into a number of companies, by far the most successful of these being Dolphin Interconnect Solutions , acluster interconnect hardware company.

Norsk Data UK [ edit ]

In the UK,Telenor kept the Norsk Data name for several years, focusing in on hardware support and maintenance contracts, mainly withHMCG and local governments.

At the tail end of the "dotcom boom" Telenor decided to try and expand the service by acquiring the ISPCIX and XTML, a hosting company in Manchester, UK. The total expenditure on acquisitions was more than £50 million.

The name and business focus of this group of companies was changed several times in the early 21st Century, being known as Nextra (along with the acquired CIX & XTML), Telenor Business Solutions (still with CIX & XTML) and finally reverting to ND Norsk Data once CIX & XTML had been resold to Pipex, reportedly for less than 10% of the purchase price.

Much of the loss in value of the acquired companies was put down to the astronomical "goodwill" payment included in the purchase price during the "dotcom boom". ND Norsk Data was then renamed 2e2, and with 2e2 came the acquisition of part of Pink Roccade. This bolstered the hardware maintenance side of the company. The growth by acquisition trend continued with several smaller businesses being taken on, and many employees subsequently being laid off. Major losses of high earning contracts such as Thomas Cook, Woolworths, HMP, or Corus, were never replaced with similar-sized customers.

Hardware [ edit ]

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 launched 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 CPU.
• ND-500, third generation 32-bit supermini in 1981
• ND-505 ,28-bit computer allowed through theCoCom embargo of theEastern bloc
• ND-5000 ("Samson"), fourth generation 32-bit supermini in 1987 (5400, 5700, 5800)
• ND-5850 ("Rallar"), fifth generation 32-bit supermini in 1987
• ND-5900-2, ND-5900-3, and ND-5904, dual-, triple- and quad-CPU 5000 series machines.
• ND-88000 - ND implementation of the MotorolaMC88000 RISC for Unix/NDix - 1987

Software [ edit ]

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

• NORD-TSS – NordTime Sharing System from 1971
• SINTRAN –Operating system for Nord 10 and later models, version III from 1973, III/VS in 1974
• XMSG – OSI based (X21 andX.25) communication system, integrated with SINTRAN, with support for both synchronous and asynchronous communication in 1974 and on. FullLU 6.2 support in 1982
• SIBASdatabase based on the Codasyl database specifications was ported by the Central Institute for Industrial Research in 1975 SIBAS is owned by SRS.
• FORTRAN compiler
• ND-Paint Graphic editing -Windows based
• BASIC compiler developed inKiel andMülheim an der Ruhr,Germany with the CAT-System (Common Abstract Tree-Language) using the Vienna Development Method , 1983
• COBOL compiler
• C C compiler for ND-100/ND-500 developed by University of Luleå, and IAR Systems AB, Sweden, in cooperation with Norsk Data A.S, 1984. A later C compiler developed in Kiel and Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany with the CAT-System using the Vienna Development Method, 1987.
• ND-COSMOS - computer networking system
• PLANC compiler - PLANC was the system language of Norsk Data - a language "defined by its implementation", similar to C, but assignment left to right, as you read: A + 1 =: A same as A++
• Pascal compiler developed by Prof. Dr. Hans Langmaack and his team atKiel University in Germany with the CAT-System using the Vienna Development Method , 1987
• PED – "Programmer's EDitor" Screen orientedtext editor
• LED – "Language-sensitive programmer's EDitor" Screen orientedtext editor anddebugger - complete Integrated Development Environment made for own use.
• ND-NOTIS – Integrated, modularword processing and office application suite with ties to database and customer applications.
• NORTEXT – typesetting system integrated with ND-NOTIS and SIBAS
• Lisp Machine Lisp – MIT Lisp machine lisp developed in a joint venture Racal-Norsk (ZetaLisp).
• Technovision - CAD system developed in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
  Technovision was a modular CAD/CAM system which was internationally considered to be one of the best on the market. It was in part designed by Norsk Data Dietz GmbH. A special workstation named the Technostation was designed specifically for running Technovision. It was extremely well received by international press, and even won a design award.
• BIBDIA - Library system developed by Norsk Data Dietz GmbH in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
  BIBDIA was further developed by BiBer GmbH since 1992. The current WEB-based version is still running as a market leader in Germany and Switzerland.

In addition to the above:

• two batch languages, called JEC and XCOM. JEC were used primarily as a simple batch job controller, whereas XCOM was used for much more involved routines such as operating system patches etc. Most of the applications came in two different editions, one compiled for the NORD-10/ND-100 series and one compiled for the ND-500/ND-5000 series.
• ND spun off NOTIS-WP and NOTIS-RG into NOTIS AS, which later changed its name to Maxware.NOTIS-QL was copied by Microsoft, where it is called Access (the internal name for NOTIS-QL was "Access-1") but the original was sold to Sysdeco and sold now with the name "QBEVision".

Tim Berners-Lee connection [ edit ]

TheWorld Wide Web originated whenTim Berners-Lee wrote theENQUIRE program in Pascal on a Norsk Data NORD-10 running under SINTRAN III atCERN.They also used ND-NOTIS, that was based on SGML, and emailed with NOTIS-MAIL, using tcp/ip, coded in HTML.

Notes [ edit ]