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Playlist "Vintage Computing Festival Berlin 2019"

The Danish computer industry of the 1900s

Mikkel Mikjær Christensen

The story of Denmark's computer industry started with the DASK in the 1950s. Shortly afterwards came the GIER. In the 1970s and 1980s, Denmark had three major computer hardware manufacturers: Regnecentralen, which was originally funded by the Marshall Plan and had been the governmental computation institute ever since the beginning, Christian Rovsing, which joined the party later on and finally Danish Data Electronics. All of them were internationally active companies that exported hardware to the entire world. There were also a handful of small niche manufacturers that made systems such as the Comet, Butler, James and the Vega Computer, which were largely one-hit wonders, all with exciting backstories. Come to this talk for a walk down memory lane of Danish computers.