5000 Compact cabinet (COMSON)¶
A Compact-sized box with two backplanes: a whole 1xx machine and an ND-5000 beside it.
| Used from | 1987 |
| Type | Cabinet |
| Family | Coprocessor systems |
| Takes which CPU | One 1xx CPU as I/O processor, plus ND-5000 CPU |
| Coprocessor? | Yes |
The short version¶
From the outside it looks much like the 1xx Compact. Inside it is a different machine: it carries two backplanes - one holding the 1xx CPU and its I/O boards, exactly as a standalone Compact would, and a second holding the ND-5000 CPU and its support boards.
ND's own drawings keep the two apart: ND-100 COMPACT (B2C6, B2C7) and
ND-100/5000 COMPACT (COMSON) (B2C8).
COMSON is not a product code name. It is the name of a machine. Norsk Data ran two ND-5000 Compacts in Oslo as disc test machines and called them COMSON-A and COMSON-B (serial numbers 21175 and 21176), with a third, plain COMSON, listed as a test machine (21645). The drawing set was titled after those machines.
ND named its machines throughout - the same list holds KOLOSS, THOR, ODIN, BALDER, MAGDA and Hylen, and the company's own operations machines were Obelix, Hades, Rosa and Luring.
Specification¶
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact-sized, similar external appearance to the 1xx Compact |
| Backplanes | Two - one ND-100 bus, one ND-5000 |
| I/O processor | One 1xx CPU board plus I/O boards on the ND-100 backplane |
| Compute CPU | ND-5000 CPU plus support boards on the second backplane |
| COMSON | A machine name, not a product name - ND's own test machines in Oslo |
| Drawings | ND Book 2: B2C8 (1987 and 1988 editions), and B4BC12 for the drive rack |
| Sold as | ND-5200 Compact, ND-5400 Compact, ND-5500 Compact, ND-5700 Compact |
What goes in it¶
| Slot / backplane | Holds |
|---|---|
| ND-100 bus backplane | 1xx CPU, memory, I/O controllers |
| ND-5000 backplane | ND-5000 CPU boards and support boards |
Notes¶
- Do not confuse with the 1xx Compact - similar box, different insides.
- Earlier drafts of this document treated COMSON as a product code name. That was wrong; corrected 2026-08-28 from the archive's own systems list, where it appears in a column headed
Namealongside other machine names.
Sources¶
- Primary: cabinet drawings B2C8, B2C8-1987, B4BC12 in the mirror - not yet imported
- Primary:
Reference-Manuals/500/ND-05.017.01 EN ND-5000 HARDWARE MAINTENANCE.mdTable 1 (Compact configurations)
Index: ../README.md. Full context: ../../MACHINE-TIMELINE.md.