Datasaab

Datasaab was the computer division of, and later a separate company spun off from, aircraft manufacturer Saab in Linköping, Sweden. Its history dates back to December 1954, when Saab got a license to build its own copy of BESK, an early Swedish computer design using vacuum tubes, from Matematikmaskinnämnden (the Swedish governmental board for mathematical machinery). This clone was completed in 1957 and was named SARA. Its computing power was needed for design calculations for the next generation jet fighter Saab 37 Viggen.

Intending to develop a navigational computer to place in an airplane, a team led by Viggo Wentzel came up with an all transistorized prototype computer named D2, completed in 1960, which came to define the company's activities in the following two decades. This development followed two lines. The main purpose was the development of a navigational computer for Viggen. A spinoff was the production of a line of civilian mini and mainframe computers for the commercial market.

The military navigational computer CK37 was completed in 1971 and used in Viggen.

The first civilian model D21 (1962) was sold to several countries and some 30 units were built. After that, several versions with names like D22 (1966), D220, D23, D5, D15, and D16 were developed. When the Swedish government needed 20 computers in the 1960s to calculate taxes, an evaluation between Saab's and IBM's machines proved Saab's better. Later the D5s were used to set up the first and largest bank terminal system for the Nordic banks, a system which was partly in use until the late 1980s.

In 1971, technologies from Standard Radio & Telefon AB (SRT) and Saab were combined to form Stansaab AS, a joint venture that also included the state-owned Swedish Development Company. The company’s primary focus was systems for real-time data applied to commercial and aviation applications.

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