Norsk Data

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The characteristic ND dotted logo used from 1973

Norsk Data was a (mini-)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. At the company's peak in 1987, it employed over 4,500 people.

1 Historical overview
2 Hardware
3 Software
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] 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 many projects, starting with their Nuclear Accelerator 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 to Norsk Hydro, and employed over 4,500 people.

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

In the UK Telenor kept the Norsk Data name for several years, focusing in on Hardware support and maintainance contracts, mainly with HMCG and local governments.

At the tail end of the dot com boom Telenor decided to try and expand the service by aquiring the ISP CIX and a hosting company in Manchester, XTML. 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" and the poor interim management of the group.

[edit] 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 CPU.
ND-500, third generation 32-bit supermini in 1981
ND-505, 28-bit computer allowed through the CoCom embargo of the Eastern 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.

[edit] Software

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

NORD-TSS – Nord Time Sharing System from 1971
SINTRAN – Operating system for Nord 10 and later models, version III from 1973, III/VS in 1974
SIBAS database in 1975
FORTRAN compiler
ND-Paint Graphic editing - Windows based
BASIC compiler
COBOL compiler
C compiler
PLANC compiler - PLANC was the system language of Norsk Data - a language "defined by its implementation"
Pascal compiler developed in Kiel, Germany
PED – "Programmer's EDitor" Screen oriented text editor
ND-NOTIS – Integrated, modular word processing and office application suite
NORTEXT – typesetting system integrated with ND-NOTIS and SIBAS

Along with the above listed applications two batch languages were included, called JEC and XCOM. JEC was used primarily as a simple batch job controller, whereas XCOM was used for much more involved routines such as operating system patches etc.

When ND discontinued NOTIS development in 1989, it was continued by NOTIS AS, which later changed its name to Maxware

A point of note: the World Wide Web originated when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the Enquire program on a SINTRAN III mini at CERN.^[1]