Simulation for Automatic Machinery

Simulation for Automatic Machinery or SAM were two unique minicomputers built by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (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 circuits.

NDRE's first computer had been Lydia which was used for anti-submarine warfare. 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 and Rolf Skår. On the basis of SAM 2 they established Norsk Data and developed the Nord-1 minicomputer.

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 for ballistic missiles and for the dimensions for Kjeller Reactor. 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 computer via the Norwegian Intelligence Service and the agency thus terminated its own computer development and instead focused on software.

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