Tema Gudar

In the middle of the 1970's Datasaab moved from centralized computer rooms to small systems. Minicomputers were launched together with business systems software application packages which were named after gods in ancient Nordic mythology. The software products remained operative in various versions into the next century.

Conny Johansson gives an overview of products and events, followed by Nyman who describes the purchase by Datasaab of Facit-Addo's computer operation. This transaction was the very beginning of the godhead products.

Ingemar Fernius and others describe how application programs were developed on several computer generations, and Sören Eriksson accounts for the godhead programs' origin and birth. Hans Laestadius has written a paper on word processing.

In the paper “Go west” Bertil Olsson tells of the cooperation with Computer Automation in California.

Bernt Sigvall and Lars Jagerfelt claim that to sell systems with the godhead programs was like selling a new way of life, and Folke Anderö remembers 21 years at Saab-Scania with D16—E2500.

The destinies of the godhead programs under the new owners Ericsson, Nokia, and ICL is described by Conny Johansson in two papers, and Lennart Pettersson and others talk about the production of minicomputers.

The book is completed by four papers without a direct connection to the main subject of the godhead programs:

Magnus Johansson chats with Datasaab old-timers about computer development in Sweden after World War 2 and about Datasaab as a centre of competence.

Viggo Wentzel tells the story how “Bits & Bytes from Datasaab's history” was born, about all people who contributed, and how the large Datasaab archive was saved from destruction.

Tord Jöran Hallberg portrays Viggo Wentzel.