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-520, ND-540, and ND-560.
ND-500/2
Sold as the ND-510, ND-530, ND-550, ND-560, ND-570 (and various /CX variants as newer ND-1x0 variants became available)
ND-505
A 31-bit version of the ND-500 machine, but . 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 [1], [2] The ND-505(/CX) uses a 500/2 CPU. 29 bits of addressing space is available for the user [3] (exactly how this relates to the physical 31 bits is not entirely clear).
ND-5000
The ND-5000 series was the latest physical implementation of the ND-500 architecture.
Cost
The price of the smallest ND-500 system in 1981 was 400.000 German mark, according to a 1981 article in Computerwoche (the source has since disappeared from the internet).
Sources
- Norsk Data Document ND–05.009 NORD-500 REFERENCE MANUAL (ND-05.009.4)
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