Introduced in 1969, the Nova was Data General's first architecture and one of the first 16-bit minicomputers. Its elegant and simple instruction set architecture prefigured today's RISC processors. The Nova family remained in production until the mid 1980's. There were eight processor designs:
Photographs:
Option | Description | Capacity |
CPU and memory | Nova | 4KW - 32KW |
CPU options | MDV (hardware multiply-divide) | |
Nova 3 instruction set | ||
Nova 4 instruction set | ||
Console | KSR-33 Teletype or Dasher VDT | |
Second terminal | KSR-33 Teletype or Dasher VDT | |
Asynchronous multiplexor | 4060 multiplexor | 1-64 lines |
425x multiplexor | 1-64 lines | |
Paper tape | ||
Real time clock | ||
Line printer | ||
Plotter | ||
Disk | 4019 fixed head disk | .5MB - 4MB |
6030 single sided, single density floppy disk | .35MB | |
6097 double sided, double density floppy disk | 1.2MB | |
4047 (4237, 4238) cartridge disk | 2.4MB | |
4234 (6045) fixed + removable cartridge disk | 10MB | |
6070 double density fixed + removable cartridge disk | 20MB | |
4048 disk pack | 6.2MB | |
4057 (2311) disk pack | 25MB | |
4231 (3330) disk pack | 92MB | |
6225 non-removable disk | 5MB | |
6227 non-removable disk | 15MB | |
6099 non-removable disk | 12.5MB | |
6103 non-removable disk | 25MB | |
Magnetic tape | 6026 800bpi 9 track magnetic tape drive |
Updated 24-Mar-2004 by Bob Supnik (bob AT supnik DOT org - anti-spam encoded)