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Simulation for Automatic Machinery or SAM were two unique
minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...
s built by the
Norwegian Defence Research Establishment The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (''Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt'' – ''FFI'') is a research institute that conducts research and development on behalf of the Norwegian Armed Forces and provides expert advice to political and m ...
(NDRE) in the mid-1960s. SAM 1, built between 1962 and 1964, was the first Norwegian-built programmable computer. It featured 4,096 14-bit words of memory and 14 registers and was used in-house at NDRE. SAM 2 was built between 1966 and 1967 and was used for analysis of satellite imagery at Tromsø Satellite Station. A third-generation computer, it was among the first three in the world to use
integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
s. NDRE's first computer had been
Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...
which was used for
anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...
. When it was completed in 1962, the design group led by Yngvar Lundh started working on SAM 1. After it was completed, NDRE convinced the satellite station to procure a Norwegian computer, despite that it had yet to be developed. Key people in the SAM 2 development were Lars Monrad-Krohn,
Per Bjørge Per or PER may refer to: Places * Peru (IOC country code) * Pér, a village in Hungary * Perthshire (Chapman code), historic county in Scotland Science and technology * Physics education research * Packed Encoding Rules, in computing, an ASN.1 ...
and
Rolf Skår Rolf Skår (13 May 1941 – 24 May 2023) was a Norwegian engineer and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of the computer manufacturing company Norsk Data in 1967, and took over as chief executive officer (CEO) of the company from 1978 to 1989. He ...
. On the basis of SAM 2 they established
Norsk Data Norsk Data was a minicomputer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1998, it had its most active period from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. At the company's peak in 1987, it was the second largest company in Norway and em ...
and developed the Nord-1 minicomputer.


Development

The first attempts by NDRE to build a computer were made by the mathematics division in the early 1950s. There were two main intended uses: calculation of
orbital mechanics Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal ...
for
ballistic missiles A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typica ...
and for the dimensions for
Kjeller Reactor Kjeller is a village located near Lillestrøm in the municipality of Lillestrøm, Norway. It is located 25 kilometers north-east of Oslo. Name The Norse form of the name was probably ''Tjaldir''. This is then the plural of ''tjald'' n 'tent'. ...
. The background was that NDRE had a keypunch machine, but there were no commercially available digital computers. In 1953 NDRE was offered a digital
Ferranti Ferranti International PLC or simply Ferranti was a UK-based electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century, from 1885 until its bankruptcy in 1993. At its peak, Ferranti was a significant player in power grid system ...
computer via the
Norwegian Intelligence Service The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) or () is a Norway, Norwegian military intelligence agency under the Chief of Defence (Norway), Chief of Defence and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Defence. History Olav Njølstad says tha ...
and the agency thus terminated its own computer development and instead focused on software. The development of SAM arose in the NDRE's servo division. Led by Karl Holberg, it was working on Terne, an anti-submarine warfare system. The system relied on an analogue electromechanical computer and NDRE saw the possibility of using digital computers instead. Yngvar Lundh wrote his master's thesis in engineering at NDRE in 1957 and then studied at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
in the US where he encountered the
TX-2 The MIT Lincoln Laboratory TX-2 computer was the successor to the Lincoln TX-0 and was known for its role in advancing both artificial intelligence and human–computer interaction. Wesley A. Clark was the chief architect of the TX-2. Specifi ...
minicomputer. When he returned to NDRE, Lundh started working on a digital computer named Lydia for Bridge, an anti-submarine system. Holberg became director of the telecommunications division in 1962 and Lundh's group moved there. Holberg gave the go-ahead for the development of a minicomputer in mid 1962 and was to be a further development of Lydia. The goal was not to make a computer that could compete with commercial models, but instead be tailored for use internally in NDRE for research of computers and simulation. SAM was completed in 1964 and used in-house at NDRE.Den Norske Dataforening: 78 It was the first Norwegian-built computer which could be programmed. The Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (NTNF) and NDRE started negotiating a satellite ground station in
Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...
in 1965. It and Kongsfjord Telemetry Station in
Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land in the west of the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned ...
were to be used by the European Space Research Organization for their low-Earth-orbit satellites starting with ESRO-2. The agreement was approved by the
Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...
in mid 1966. Part of the reason for the Norwegian support was the opportunity of training Norwegians in
pulse-code modulation Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amplitud ...
and digital computing. The agreement involved that NDRE was to supply a minicomputer for Tromsø.Rødberg: 17 The choice of computer for the Tromsø station became a major part of the negotiations. NDRE argued that it was fully capable of delivering such a system, but NTNF instead wanted to safe by buying the
PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a family of 12-bit minicomputers that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units sold during the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pi ...
from
Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...
in the United States. NDRE was awarded the contract in part because of NTNF's obligation to support Norwegian technology and in part because NDRE agreed to purchase a suitable foreign computer if they could not successfully manufacture one themselves. The thought was that it would be possible to construct a Norwegian computer for the same price as an off-the-shelf computer given that the wages at NDRE were not included. NDRE was able to make an agreement with Chr. Michelsen Institute which allowed them to borrow their computer in case SAM 2 did not work.Heradstveit: 33 NDRE had in the meantime hired two graduates, Rolf Skår and Per Bjørge, who became a core of the development group. SAM 2 was the first in Europe and among the first three in the world which used
integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
s. The computer was built by two groups, both of which put in 14-hour shifts. Construction was completed several months before the deadline.


Specifications

SAM 1 had a main memory of 4,096 words, each 24 bits long. It had seven 14-bit
index register An index register in a computer's central processing unit, CPU is a processor register (or an assigned memory location) used for pointing to operand addresses during the run of a program. It is useful for stepping through String (computer science ...
s, eight special purpose registers, three data registers, an accumulator, a screen, a
light pen A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's cathode-ray tube (CRT) display. It allows the user to point to displayed objects or draw on the screen in a similar way to a to ...
, a punch card reader and a
Flexowriter The Friden Flexowriter was a teleprinter produced by the Friden, Inc., Friden Calculating Machine Company. It was a heavy-duty electric typewriter capable of being driven not only by a human typing, but also automatically by several methods, inc ...
. It had a flexible input and output system and was connected to NDRE's
CDC 3600 The CDC 3000 series ("thirty-six hundred" or "thirty-one hundred") are a family of mainframe computer, mainframe computers from Control Data Corporation (CDC). The first member, the CDC 3600, was a 48-bit computing, 48-bit system introduced in 196 ...
.


Legacy

As there was time between SAM 2 was completed and it had to be in Tromsø, the designers took it on a tour to
Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
and
Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
. While in Bergen the group met an old fellow student who was working as an entrepreneur and the designers decided to establish a computer manufacturing company. This resulted in the establishment of
Norsk Data Norsk Data was a minicomputer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1998, it had its most active period from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. At the company's peak in 1987, it was the second largest company in Norway and em ...
, a major manufacturer of minicomputers. At the company's peak in 1987 it was one of Norway's largest companies and more than 3,600 people. SAM 1 is on display at the
Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology () is located in Oslo, Norway. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. History The museum as an institution was founded in 1914 as a part of the commemorati ...
.


References

;Bibliography * * * * {{Portal bar, Norway Minicomputers One-of-a-kind computers 1964 establishments in Norway 1967 establishments in Norway Norwegian Defence Research Establishment