ND-500
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The ND-500 was a 32-bit superminicomputer delivered in 1981. It relied on a ND-100 to do housekeeping tasks and run the OS, SINTRAN III.
A configuration could feature up to four ND-500 CPUs, in a shared-memory configuration.
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[edit] Hardware implementations
The ND-500 architecture lived through four distinct implementations. Each implementation was sold under a variety of different model numbers.
ND also sold multiprocessor configurations, naming them ND-580/n and an ND-590n, where n represented the number of CPUs in a given configuration, 2, 3, or 4.
[edit] ND-500/1
Sold as the ND-500, ND-520, ND-540, and ND-560.
[edit] ND-500/2
Sold as the ND-570, ND-570/CX, and the ND-570/ACX.
[edit] ND-505
A 31-bit version of the ND-500 machine. Pin 27 was snipped on the backplane, removing its status as a superminicomputer, allowing it to legally pass through the cocom embargo.
[edit] Samson
Sold as the ND-5200, ND-5400, ND-5500, ND-5700, and ND-5800. The ND-120 CPU line, which constituted the ND-100 side of most ND-5000 computers, was named Delilah. As the 5000 line progressed in speed, the dual-arch ND-100/500 configuration increasingly became bottlenecked by all I/O having to go through the ND-100.
[edit] Rallar
Sold as the ND-5830 and ND-5850. The Rallar processor consisted of two main VLSI gate arrays, KUSK and GAMP - meaning "Jockey" and "Horse", respectively.
