Information About

Nd-500




The ND-500 was a 32-bit Supermini computer delivered in 1981 by Norsk Data . It relied on a ND-100 to do housekeeping tasks and run the OS, 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-590''n'', 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.


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.


SEE ALSO