ND-500

The ND-500 is a 32-bit superminicomputer delivered in 1981 by Norsk Data. It relied on a ND-100 to do housekeeping tasks and run the operating system, SINTRAN III.

A configuration could feature up to four ND-500 CPUs, in a shared-memory configuration.

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.

ND-500/1

Sold as the ND-500, ND-520, ND-540, and ND-560.

ND-500/2

Sold as the ND-570, ND-570/CX, and the ND-570/ACX.

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. Cocom (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) was an embargo on Western exports to East Bloc countries during the Cold War.

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.

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.

Cost

The price of the smallest ND-500 system in 1981 was 400.000 German mark.

Sources

• This article was originally a copy of the English Wikipedia article ND-500 in 3 November 2008.

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