NORDIC
NORDIC (the Nord Integrated Computer System) was a multi-computer installation at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo, Norway. Development of the system started in 1971, and was completed in February 1972. The complete system consisted of three NORD-1 machines, connected to a NORD-5 compute module.
Contents
Hardware
Telecommunications processor
One of the NORD-1 machines works as a telecommunications processor. It has 16K 16-bit core memory, a 256K drum as storage, and is connected to the national teleprinter net and international lines (via modems).
Job processors
The two other NORD-1 machines are the job processors. They share a common 64K memory pool (core memory), and have common peripheral equipment that can be connected by a multi-selector switch to any of the two NORD-1 machines.
Peripherals consists of
- two NCR Dual Disc units with capacity of 8 million 16 bit word, average access time 45 ms
- one Vermont drum, capacity 256K 16 bit words, access time 10 ms average
- three Magtape units, 9 track IBM compatible
- Card reader, 300 cards per minute
- Line printer, 1500 lines per minute
- Paper tape reader 333 characters per second
- Paper tape reader 2000 characters per second
- Paper tape punch 60 characters per second
- One Matrix plotter
The multi-selector switch can be operated manually, or program controlled.
System software
The operating system for the NORDIC consists of the real-time operating system SINTRAN II and a file oriented batch operating system NORD-OPS.
