NORD-1 Serial 28

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NORD-1 serial number 28 was installed at Tokke hydroelectric power station[1]. It was connected to control (and measurement?) equipment from NEBB, which could measure instability and / or load changes in the electrical power grid, and switch out or in parts of the electrical power grid. This was the first autonomous electrical power grid control in the world. It made it possible to get more power from the power grid, the investment cost of this installation was recovered in about six months time.

NORD-1.28 in 2016

This installation ran without faults for twenty years, and did changes to the power grid a handful of times.[2]

Computer configuration

NORD-1 serial number 28 had 8 kbytes (or kilo words?) core memory and a 250 kbytes drum as secondary storage. It is believed that the operating system was SINTRAN II, using core loads instead of virtual memory.

Control equipment

The control (and measurement?) equipment from NEBB was made by Erik Haagensen, Ole Harald Nordgard and Tor Olav Steine. The software that interfaced the control equipment to the computer was written by Tor Olav Steine.

Still existing?

Back in 2010, one person reported on the datahistorie mailing list[3] that the NORD-1 had been sighted at Tokke power station.[4]

It is still in good shape and quite complete (2016) and is kept in storage for a possible future museum. It still got it's 250 kbyte drum memory, a ND11-671 Digitronics 2540 high speed perforated tape reader and a printer terminal. There seems to be some tapes left too but the content is not known.

Pictures

References

  1. Wikipedia:Tokke Hydroelectric Power Station
  2. Information received directly (via mailinglist and email) from Tor Olav Steine on 2016-08-24.
  3. https://mailman.efn.no/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/datahistorie
  4. Jeg var innom Tokke kraftverk i dag. Der står det en Nord-1 med trommellager, en Nord-10/S, en PDP11/83. Nord-1'en så rimelig hel ut. De andre også.