NORD-10 Serial 619

NORD-10/S serial 619 is a survivor, it's seen some tough times

This is how it looks today.

The power supply was replaced years ago and only parts of the original supply hangs in the wires. The card crates might not have the cards in the right positions or even being complete. I will do some study of other systems that still exist and try to rebuild it into a running state. I will also try to find out more about it's history.

Status

In need of serious repair. Not in a running state.

Configuration

The two card crates are half filled with cards. It has not been documented yet which cards or where they are. It is very possible that cards are in the wrong position.

• Power supply is just a mess, replaced with a PC power supply.
• Front panel in good shape.
• CPU-crate with unknown content.
• I/O crate with unknown content.

CPU crate

This list reflects the configuration when I got the machine as well as the current one. There might be errors in the original configuration.

There is markings on the backside of the crate that shows what type of card should be in respective slot. This should be checked before trying to power up the CPU.

The CPU crate above and the I/O crate below.

Backside of the CPU crate, colored cables going up is to the front panel, downwards is the I/O bus extension to the lower crate, white is power and the green ones... beats me.

Position	Initial card	Name	Current card	Name	Notes
1	1062	STATUS
2	1001	ARITHMETIC			1001/II
3	1001	ARITHMETIC			1001/II
4	1002	REGISTER
5	1002	REGISTER
6	1002	REGISTER
7	1002	REGISTER
8	1007	DECODING			1007/V
9	1006	OR LOGIC			1006/IV
10	1023	1K PROM			1023/II
11	1075	MICROADDRESSING			1075/II
12	1120	TIME CONTROL
13	1073	CONTROL DRIVER
14	1040	PAGING			1040/V
15	1058	INTERRUPT CONTROL			1058/III
16	1008	INTERRUPT REGISTERS			1008/II
17	1121	PANEL CONTROL			1121 C ??? Check backside of crate
18	Empty				Optional? .... check manuals and backside of crate
19	1127	TRANSCEIVER CONTROL			1127 D Check backside of crate
20	1119	TRANSCEIVER ADDRESS			1119 D Check backside of crate
21	1115	LAMP REGISTER			1115 E ??? Check backside of crate
22	1125	TRANSCEIVER DATA			1125 E Check backside of crate
23	Empty				Optional ... Multiport control? Check backside of crate
24	Empty				Optional ... Multiport data? Check backside of crate
25	Empty				I/O and memory area
26	Empty				I/O and memory area
27	Empty				I/O and memory area
28	Empty				I/O and memory area
29	Empty				I/O and memory area
30	Empty				I/O and memory area
31	1132	32K RAM			1132 D, I/O and memory area
32	1132	32K RAM			1132 D, I/O and memory area

I/O crate

This list reflects the configuration when I got the machine as well as the current one. There might be errors in the original configuration.

It should be checked that there are only I/O cards in this crate. The back plane also needs to be investigated. It consists of two parts but it isn't totally clear where the split is made, probably in a 16+8 block. It also looks like the IRQ chain is jumping over certain positions (yellow wire wrap at the back plane), allowing thicker cards to be installed.

Backside of the I/O crate, colored cables connecting the I/O rack with the surrounding devices and the CPU. The backplane is split in two parts with the bus bridged with white cables in connectors.

Position	Initial card	Name	Current card	Name	Notes
1	1096	DMA ADDRESS			1096 C
2	1093	BRANCH TRANSCEIVER			1093 F
3	Empty
4	Empty
5	1093	BRANCH TRANSCEIVER			1093 F
6	Empty
7	1101	BRANCH CONTROL			1101 F
8	Empty
9	1122	BUS CONTROL			1122 VI
10	1210	CLOCK AND PARITY			1210 G
11	Empty
12	Empty
13	1122	4 AS. CURRENT LOOP			1122 D
14	1111	FLOPPY DISC CONTROL			1111 D
15	1118	FLOPPY DISC DATA			1118 D
16	Empty
17	Empty
18	1095	TERMINAL BUFFER			1095 F
19	Empty
20	Empty
21	Empty
22	Empty
23	1070	DATA AND ADDR BUS SEL			1070 B
24	1070	DATA AND ADDR BUS SEL			1070 B

Position 25 to 32 is taken up by the NORD-10 HAWK Disk Controller. According to the manual, the disk controller should have a cable connected between position 2 (1022 Bus control) to position 27 (1014 DMA Registers). The connection to the disk is made via three cables attached to position 30-32. A pretty safe guess is that the 1122 Bus control card can be used instead of the 1022. The manual is published March 1976 and the NORD-10/S wasn't really on the market yet.

Position	Initial card	Name	Current card	Name	Notes
25	Empty
26	Empty
27	1014	DMA REGISTERS			1014/IV
28	1037	DISC CONTROL			1037/VII
29	1013	DEVICE REGISTERS			1013/IV
30	1107	DISC SEQUENCE			1107 B
31	1039	DISC TIMING			1039/II
32	1036	DISC TRANSCEIVER			1036 D

Die cast serial number plate.

History

• Original owner not known.
• Part of the computer park of the FUN (Forskarföreningen Umeå Naturvetare) society around 1985-1995.
• Previous owner tried to get it running by replacing the power supply 10-15 years ago. It never started.
• It's been in my care since around 2003 when the previous owner put it in my workshop and tried to get it running. It's been with me through two moves since then. Last move was in 2017 and hopefully it was the last one in a long time.

Future plans

• To begin with just check if the system is complete enough to get into a running state. The old power supply is obviously beyond repair, but a modern PC power supply should be able to power the system.
• Test if it will do anything close to running and why not.

Extras

There are some documentation that I haven't received yet.

Location

The system is in the care of Göran Axelsson and is located in a storage close to Umeå, Sweden.

Gallery

• 

  Front of the system in 2014

• 

  Back of the system in 2014, PC power supply hanging in the wires.

• 

  Serial number plate

• 

  Card cages in 2014.