The
Data General Nova was a popular
16-bit minicomputer built by the American company
Data General starting in 1969. The Nova was packaged into a single
rack mount case and had enough power to do most simple computing tasks. The Nova became popular in science laboratories around the world, and eventually 50,000 units were sold. It was succeeded by the
Data General Eclipse, which was similar in most ways but added
virtual memory support and other features required by modern
operating systems.