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.

There were two main intended uses: calculation of orbital mechanics for ballistic missiles and for the dimensions for Kjeller Reactor.

Yngvar Lundh wrote his master's thesis in engineering at NDRE in 1957 and then studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US where he encountered the TX-2 minicomputer.

When he returned to NDRE, Lundh started working on a digital computer named Lydia for Bridge, an anti-submarine system.

[4] The Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (NTNF) and NDRE started negotiating a satellite ground station in Tromsø in 1965.

It and Kongsfjord Telemetry Station in Ny-Ålesund were to be used by the European Space Research Organization for their low-Earth-orbit satellites starting with ESRO-2.

NDRE argued that it was fully capable of delivering such a system, but NTNF instead wanted to safe by buying the PDP-8 from Digital Equipment Corporation in the United States.

[7] NDRE had in the meantime hired two graduates, Rolf Skår and Per Bjørge, who became a core of the development group.

[7] While in Bergen the group met an old fellow student who was working as an entrepreneur and the designers decided to establish a computer manufacturing company.