| Norsk Data |
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| minicomputers | |
| defunct computer hardware companies | |
| defunct companies of norway | |
| computer companies of norway | |
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HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The origins of Norsk Data go back to the development of digital computers at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment at Kjeller , Norway , where several early computers had been designed, such as the ''SAM'' and the ''SAM 2'' aka ''FLINK''. The success of this program resulted in the founding of ''A/S Nordata - Norsk Data Elektronikk'' on August 8 , 1967 by Lars Monrad Krohn , Per Bjørge and Rolf Skår . The company became a significant supplier of minicomputers to many research projects, in particular to CERN in Geneva , Switzerland , where they were chosen to produce the computers for many projects, starting with their Nuclear Accelerator Project, Norsk Data's international breakthrough contract. The other market segments Norsk Data succeeded in were process control, Norwegian Municipal Administration Data Center s, newspapers, as well as parts of the educational, health, and university sector. For a period in 1987, Norsk Data was the second largest company by stock value in Norway, second only to Norsk Hydro , and employed over 4,500 people. After a long period of exceptional success, the Norsk Data "empire" collapsed in the early 1990s, mostly due to not realizing the impact of the PC revolution (as well as the growing competition from UNIX -based Workstation s). Norsk Data technology was continued by Dolphin . See more about Norsk Data here (Norwegian) . Norsk Data was purchased by Telenor and went through several rebrands and relaunches. In the UK Telenor kept the Norsk Data name for several years, focusing in on Hardware support and maintenance contracts, mainly with HMCG and local governments. At the tail end of the dot com boom Telenor decided to try and expand the service by acquiring the ISP CIX and a hosting company in Manchester, XTML. The name and business focus of this group of companies was changed several times in the early 21st Century, being known as Nextra (along with the acquired CIX & XTML), Telenor Business Solutions (still with CIX & XTML) and finally reverting to ND Norsk Data once CIX & XTML had been resold to Pipex, reportedly for less than 10% of the purchase price. Much of the loss in value of the acquired companies was put down to the astronomical "goodwill" payment included in the purchase price during the "dotcom boom" and the poor interim management of the group. HARDWARE Significant Norsk Data computer models include:
SOFTWARE In addition to hardware, Norsk Data also produced a wide range of system and application software:
Along with the above listed applications two batch languages were included, called JEC and XCOM. JEC was used primarily as a simple batch job controller, whereas XCOM was used for much more involved routines such as operating system patches etc. Most of the application came in two different editions, one compiled for Nord-100-series and one compiled for Nord-1100 series. When ND discontinued NOTIS development in 1989, it was continued by NOTIS AS, which later changed its name to Maxware A point of note: the article NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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