The living dg museum the living dg museum project is designed to preserve the life of data general legacy hardware and software. Software kits some of these software kits are governed by licenses restricting their use. The data general nova was a popular 16bit minicomputer built by the american company data general starting in 1969. The data general rdos realtime disk operating system was a realtime operating system released in 1970. Data general was unable to recover and eventually sold to emc owners also of vmware and rsa security in 1999. Event highlights we celebrated the technical and personal impact of the data general nova and its exciting part of computer history.
Welcome to my data general dg preservation and restoration site. The first model was just called the nova and was released in 1969. Idivide unit, fastaccess disc storage and 9track mag tape, card reader, and line printer. The back cover has two pictures of the nova over the logo for data general corporation dgc. Download the latest sources, documentation, and software kits for dave bryans hp simulators. The software was only sold bundled with the companys popular nova and eclipse minicomputers. In 1969, data general introduced the nova, the first 16bit minicomputer with four accumulators, a leading technology at the time. Various legacy 16 and 32bit computers and other hardware have been acquired to date and will be restored to full working order under this project. In 1969 they released the nova minicomputer and it quickly became a popular machine in scientific and educational markets. Today i received a letter from ed mcmanus from marlborough, ma with a data general ceo keyboard template and a dg pin. Data general nova 4, pn 8390h, sn 25959385 this is a 1978 vintage 16bit mini computer built by data general in southboro, ma. Ctrla ctrlc ctrld ctrlf ctrlh ctrlq ctrls ctrlx ctrlz lf cr esc tab rubdel.
Let our guaranteed solutions move your dg investment to modern open systems. The nova family was very popular in the 1970s and ultimately sold tens of. The business that time forgot data general is gone. The nova was packaged into a single rack mount case and had enough power to do most simple computing tasks. The system consists of a 312 and a 6030 dual diskette drive unit in a halfheight rack mount chassis. The initial nova software includes a powerful assembler, a context oriented text editor, a multiple breakpoint debugger, complete hardware diagnostics, utility programs, and mathematical routines, including floating point arithmetic. This used their own operating system, rdos, and in conjunction with programming languages like data general business basic they provided a multiuser operating system with record locking and inbuilt data bases far ahead of many contemporary systems. Dos and rdos for the nova, rdos and aos for the 16bit eclipse c, m, and s lines, aosvs and aosvs ii for the eclipse mv line, and a modified version of unix system v called dgux for the eclipse mv and aviion machines. The loaded nova is the nova 840 with realtime disc operating system. Data general restoration data general nova, eclipse, mv. What it lacks is something i consider essential to documentation. The nova became hugely popular in science labs around the world, and eventually 50,000 units were sold. The nova became popular in science laboratories around the world, and eventually 50,000 units were sold.
A personal explanation of the small computer trend. One is a data general nova 3, installed in a rack cabinet with a hard disk drive that has one fixed platter and one removable platter. This post is part of the series on learning the data general nova with simh simh is a fantastic program that simulates more than a dozen computers. The 1200 used 1200 ns core while the 800 featured the supernovas 800 ns core, explaining the somewhat confusing naming where the lower number represents the faster machine. Its documentation, although complete, is unfriendly to someone who has never used it. It is part of the food chain, and it has been swallowed up, concedes the cofounder of data general corp. Data general nova class instruction set description data general s nova class all shared a common base instruction set. Data general nova 3 computer system decode systems. Edson decastro, the manager for digital equipment corporations famous pdp8 minicomputer, left dec to establish data general in 1968. Whether you want to directly run current data general based programs on open systems, or need media conversion services, or want a complete turnkey migration solution, you get the benefit of fifty years of dg experience. Data general developed operating systems for its hardware. His company wildhare has also developed some interesting hardware and software products to enable legacy data general operating systems to run on modern hardware as well as developing a flash based storage pcb that emulates legacy data general peripherals and in 2019 has launched a modern replacement for the nova cpu with inbuilt flash storage to emulate dg peripherals. The nova family was very popular in the 1970s and ultimately sold tens of thousands of examples. Data general nova, eclipse digital equipment corporation pdp1, pdp4, pdp7, pdp8, pdp9, pdp10, pdp11, pdp15 and uc15, vax11780, vax3900.
My obsession began with a nova 3 i got in late 2001, and was followed by a second nova 3 and eclipse s in september 2005. Data general nova 3, 16bit minicomputer the soul of a. Data general nova3 we recently reassembled this data general nova3 system. Unfortunately for data general motorola ended development of the 88k when they decided to transition to powerpc. Data general nova 3 and dec pdp11v03l marks tech journal. Data general nova 1200 front panel a nova 1200, midright, processed the images generated by the emiscanner, the worlds first commercially available ct scanner. Details about data general nova 48684ab nvr nova 4 power regulator. This gathering of nova creators and nova lovers shared a broad range of nova hardware, software, old friendships, memorabilia, personal musings, special announcements and minipresentations.
To historical notes, it should be noted the architecture of the system is very similar in many respects to the pdp11, and accusations have flown around about dec stealing from dg, vice versa, and the nova being developed by engineers who. The aim of this site is to preserve and restore systems that were designed and built by data general corp and whilst doing so provide as much information on those systems, peripherals, software and documentation as possible. Each of the disk drives has both a fixed and a removable platter. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Data general s first machine, the nova, unveiled at the annual national computer conference in 1969, was a great success. Data general nova wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. And our people have worked with dg systems even longer. During its early years, the company was successful in the. Its tough to describe my three years at data general. The nova packed enough power to do most simple computing tasks and was packaged into a single rack mount case. Information and current status of my data general nova 3, 16bit mini computer project data general nova 312. Further improvements in the line followed in 19701 with a pair of machines that replaced the nova supernova, the nova 1200 and nova 800 series. The data general nova is a series of 16bit minicomputers released by the american company data general.
It was succeeded by the data general eclipse, which was similar in. Contribute to jsidenova1 development by creating an account on github. A 32k static ram memory board designed, laid out, fabricated and assembled in 10 days. When i retired from dgemc 29 years they gave me the original nova sn 1. In the late 1980s data general released the 32bit aviion nova ii, based on the motorola 88000 risc processor. Bill fosters memoir of his experience at dg from 19761979 as director and then vp of software. The data general nova was a popular 16bit minicomputer built by the united states company data general starting in 1969. Each kit contains license information, if a license applies.
Find great deals on ebay for data general nova when you shop the largest online selection at. The nova assembler is a two pass system producing absolute binary and an assembly. Like the earlier models, the 1200 used a 4bit math unit while. This is the page where ill document the restoration of my data general minicomputers. A personal explanation of the small computer trend is given on page 2. All about my nova 3 this nova 312 has a new home and i have a new nova 312. Coronavirus data centre software security devops business. Nova, rack mountable nova is one of the most popular of the smallscale, general purpose computers. Preserves history and legacy of data general nova, eclipse, mv, and compatible minicomputers. Their first product, the data general nova, was a 16bit minicomputer. When it comes to data general problems, wild hare is the company to contact. The other is a digital equipment corporation dec pdp11v03l, which is a combination of a pdp1103 and an rx02 dual 8 floppy drive mounted in a short rack cabinet. Some later models added a few instructions, mostly concerned with hardware stacks and integer multiplydivide. Cpsc 3300 dg eagle mv8000 the soul of a new machine.