History of Nordic Computing IFIP WG9.7 First Working Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (Hinc1), June 16-18, 2003, Trondheim, Norway

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History of Nordic Computing IFIP WG9.7 First Working Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (Hinc1), June 16-18, 2003, Trondheim, Norway

springer.com Informatik : Theorie der Informationsverarbeitung Bubenko, J., Impagliazzo, J., Soelvberg, A. (Hrsg.) History of Nordic Computing IFIP WG9.7 First Working Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (HiNC1), June 16-18, 2003, Trondheim, Norway Presents a valuable segment of computing history Current books on historical computing do not include such a comprehensive discourse on the evolution of technology from this unique geographic perspective Computing in the Nordic countries started in late 1940s mainly as an engineering activity to build computing devices to perform mathematical calculations and assist mathematicians and engineers in scientific problem solving. The early computers of the Nordic countries emerged during the 1950s and had names like BARK, BESK, DASK, SMIL, SARA, ESKO, and NUSSE. Each of them became a nucleus in institutes and centres for mathematical computations programmed and used by highly qualified professionals. However, one should not forget the Springer punched-card machine technology at this time that had existed for several decades. In addition, we have a Nordic name, namely Frederik Rosing Bull, contributing to the fundaments 2005, XIX, 488 p. 1. of punched card technology and forming the French company Bull. Commercial products such Auflage as FACIT EDB and SAAB D20-series computers in Sweden, the Danish GIER computer, the Nokia MIKKO computer in Finland, as well as the computers of Norsk Data in Norway followed the early computers. In many cases, however, companies and institutions did not further Gedrucktes Buch develop or exploit Nordic computing hardware, even though it exhibited technical advantages. Hardcover Consequently, in the 1970s, US computers, primarily from IBM, flooded the Nordic market. Gedrucktes Buch Bestellen Sie online unter springer.com/booksellers Hardcover Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH ISBN 978-0-387-24167-8 Customer Service £ 129,99 | CHF 177,00 | 149,95 € | Tiergartenstrasse 15-17 164,95 € (A) | 160,45 € (D) 69121 Heidelberg lieferbar Germany Rabattgruppe T: +49 (0)6221 345-4301 Science (SC) [email protected] Produktkategorie Tagungsbericht Reihe IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology Other renditions Softcover ISBN 978-1-4614-9889-6 € (D) sind gebundene Ladenpreise in Deutschland und enthalten 7 % für Printprodukte bzw. 19 % MwSt. für elektronische Produkte. € (A) sind gebundene Ladenpreise in Österreich und enthalten 10 % für Printprodukte bzw. 20% MwSt. für elektronische Produkte.Die mit * gekennzeichneten Preise sind unverbindliche Preisempfehlungen und enthalten die landesübliche MwSt. Preisänderungen und Irrtümer vorbehalten. ISBN 978-0-387-24167-8 / BIC: UY / SPRINGER NATURE: SCI16005 Part of .

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The State of Digital Computer Technology in Europe, 1961
This report indicates the level of computer development and application in each of the thirty countries of Europe, most of which were recently visited by the author The State Of Digital Computer Technology In Europe By NELSON M. BLACHMAN Digital computers are now in use in practically every Communist Countries country in Europe, though in some there are still very few U. S. S.R. A very thorough account of Soviet com- and these are of foreign manufacture. Such machines have puter work is given in the report edited by Willis Ware [3]. been built in sixteen European countries, of which seven To Ware's collection of Russian machines can be added a are producing them commercially. The map above shows computer at the Moscow Power Institute, a school for the the computer geography of Europe and the Near East. It is training of heavy-current electrical engineers (Figure 1). somewhat difficult to rank the countries on a one-dimen- It is described as having a speed of 25,000 fixed-point sional scale both because of the many-faceted nature of the operations or five to seven thousand floating-point oper- computer field and because their populations differ widely ations per second, a word length of 20 or 40 bits, and a in size. Nevertheh~ss, Great Britain clearly comes first 4096-word ferrite-core memory, supplemented by a fixed (after the U. S.). She is followed by (West) Germany, the 256-word store on paper printed with condensers plus a U. S. S. R., France, and Japan. Much useful information on 50,000-word magnetic-tape store.
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BEST AVAILABLE COPY i The pur'pose of this DIGITAL COMPUTER Itop*"°a""-'"""neesietter' YNEWSLETTER . W OFFICf OF NIVAM RUSEARCMI • MATNEMWTICAL SCIENCES DIVISION Vol. 9, No. 2 Editors: Gordon D. Goldstein April 1957 Albrecht J. Neumann TABLE OF CONTENTS It o Page No. W- COMPUTERS. U. S. A. "1.Air Force Armament Center, ARDC, Eglin AFB, Florida 1 2. Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Bedford, Mass. 1 3. Autonetics, RECOMP, Downey, Calif. 2 4. Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army 2 5. IBM 709. New York, New York 3 6. Lincoln Laboratory TX-2, M.I.T., Lexington, Mass. 4 7. Litton Industries 20 and 40 DDA, Beverly Hills, Calif. 5 8. Naval Air Test Centcr, Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland 5 9. National Cash Register Co. NC 304, Dayton, Ohio 6 10. Naval Air Missile Test Center, RAYDAC, Point Mugu, Calif. 7 11. New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York 7 12. Philco, TRANSAC. Philadelphia, Penna. 7 13. Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio 8 COMPUTING CENTERS I. Univ. of California, Radiation Lab., Livermore, Calif. 9 2. Univ. of California, SWAC, Los Angeles, Calif. 10 3. Electronic Associates, Inc., Princeton Computation Center, Princeton, New Jersey 10 4. Franklin Institute Laboratories, Computing Center, Philadelphia, Penna. 11 5. George Washington Univ., Logistics Research Project, Washington, D. C. 11 6. M.I.T., WHIRLWIND I, Cambridge, Mass. 12 7. National Bureau of Standards, Applied Mathematics Div., Washington, D.C. 12 8. Naval Proving Ground, Naval Ordnance Computation Center, Dahlgren, Virgin-.a 12 9. Ramo Wooldridge Corp., Digital Computing Center, Los Angeles, Calif.
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Norwegian Computer Tecnology Founding a New Industry
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1 2017.04.16 Accepted for publication in Nuncius Hamburgensis, Band 20. Preprint of invited paper for Gudrun Wolfschmidt's book: Vom Abakus zum Computer - Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung "Geschichte der Rechentechnik", 2015-2019 GIER: A Danish computer from 1961 with a role in the modern revolution of astronomy By Erik Høg, lektor emeritus, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen Abstract: A Danish computer, GIER, from 1961 played a vital role in the development of a new method for astrometric measurement. This method, photon counting astrometry, ultimately led to two satellites with a significant role in the modern revolution of astronomy. A GIER was installed at the Hamburg Observatory in 1964 where it was used to implement the entirely new method for the meas- urement of stellar positions by means of a meridian circle, then the fundamental instrument of as- trometry. An expedition to Perth in Western Australia with the instrument and the computer was a suc- cess. This method was also implemented in space in the first ever astrometric satellite Hipparcos launched by ESA in 1989. The Hipparcos results published in 1997 revolutionized astrometry with an impact in all branches of astronomy from the solar system and stellar structure to cosmic distances and the dynamics of the Milky Way. In turn, the results paved the way for a successor, the one million times more powerful Gaia astrometry satellite launched by ESA in 2013. Preparations for a Gaia suc- cessor in twenty years are making progress. Zusammenfassung: Eine elektronische Rechenmaschine, GIER, von 1961 aus Dänischer Herkunft spielte eine vitale Rolle bei der Entwiklung einer neuen astrometrischen Messmethode.
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