ND-5000 family
The ND-5000 family is the third generations system based on the ND-500 architecture. It is a totally new construction both in hardware and physical layout. The ND-5000 CPU uses the same instructions as the ND-500 CPU but adds a couple of new instructions called '87 extensions', also found in the ND-500/1 and ND-500/2 CPUs.
The new ND-5000 CPU replaces 24 cards in the old ND-500 arcitecture. The single processor ND-5700 system have the same computational power as a ND-570 system.
The ND-5000 series of computers is able to run both SINTRAN III and NDIX, Norsk Data's version of UNIX.
Hardware implementation
The ND-5000 family systems uses a ND-100/ND-110/ND-120 CPU as I/O processor.
CPU types
The ND-5000 CPUs came in 3 types. Type 1 had two layers of cards, type 2 had three layers of cards, and type 3 had four layers of cards. Type 1 and type 2 used similar mother boards/baby modules, the difference was that a layer with instruction/data cache and the AAP (Additional Arithmetic Processor) was missing in the type 1 CPUs. The missing AAP meant that on type 1 CPUs floating point operations were performed by the microprogram[1].
System performance
The difference in performance between models was mainly done by 3 methods:
- Select a CPU (Type 1 / Type 2 / Type 3).
- Jumper the master clock speed to Slow (156 ns) or Normal (70 ns).
- Disable or enable a number or performance enhancing caching features.
Different combinations of the above resulted in the different ND-5000 models. The table below illustrates this[2].
| System | CPU type | Instruction cache | Data cache | Address cache | Smart IfGo cache | WICO (Write in Cache only) | Master clock speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ND-5200 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 70 ns |
| ND-5400 | 2 | Yes | - | - | Yes | - | 156 ns |
| ND-5500 | 2 | Yes | Yes | - | Yes | - | 156 ns |
| ND-5700 | 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | - | 70 ns |
| ND-5800 | 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 70 ns |
Models
The original series of ND-5000 computers came in three different models, ND-5700, ND-5800 and ND-5900. Later additions to the family were Compact models, ND-5200 Compact and ND-5700 Compact[3].
| System | Relative CPU performance | Memory shared (Mb) | Memory local (Mb) | Data cache (Kb) | Instruction cache (Kb) | Max disk capacity (Gb) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ND-5200 Compact | ||||||
| ND-5700 | 1 | 8-512 | 2 | 64 | 320 | 29 |
| ND-5700 Compact | ||||||
| ND-5800 | 2 | 16-512 | 4 | 64 | 320 | 29 |
| ND-5900 Model 2 | 4 | 16-512 | 4 | 2x64 | 2x320 | 29 |
| ND-5900 Model 3 | 6 | 16-512 | 4 | 3x64 | 3x320 | 29 |
| ND-5900 Model 4 | 8 | 16-512 | 4 | 4x64 | 4x320 | 29 |
Reference
- NEWS March 1987, pg. 52-53, "The ND-5000 Series: Removing Hardware Limitations".
- Norsk Data Document ND–05.009.3 NORD-500 REFERENCE MANUAL
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