- Micral
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According to the Computer History Museum, the Micral N, produced by the French company R2E, was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer based on a microprocessor (in this case, the Intel 8008).[1]
R2E founder André Truong Trong Thi (EFREI degree, Paris), a French immigrant from Vietnam, asked Frenchman François Gernelle to develop the Micral N computer for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), starting in June 1972.[2][3][4] Alain Perrier of INRA was looking for a computer for process control in his crop evapotranspiration measurements.[5][6] The software was developed by Benchetrit, with Alain Lacombe and Jean-Claude Beckmann working on the electrical and mechanical aspects. Gernelle invented the Micral N, which was much smaller than existing minicomputers, soon named in 1973 for the first time: "microcomputer".
The computer was to be delivered in December 1972, and Gernelle, Lacombe, Benchetrit and Beckmann had to work in a cellar in Châtenay-Malabry for 18 hours a day in order to deliver the computer in time. The software was written on an Intertechnique Multi-8 minicomputer using a cross-assembler. The computer was based on an Intel 8008 microprocessor clocked at 500 kHz. It had a backplane bus, called the Pluribus with 74-pin connector. 14 boards could be plugged in a Pluribus. With two Pluribus, the Micral N could support up to 24 boards. The computer used MOS memory instead of core. The Micral N could support parallel and serial input-output. It had 8 levels of interrupt and a stack. The computer was programmed with perforated cards, and used a teleprinter as output. It was delivered to the INRA in January 1973, and commercialized in February 1973 for FF 8,500 (about $1,750) making it a cost-effective replacement for minicomputers which augured the era of the PC.
France had produced the first microcomputer. A year would pass before the first North American microcomputer, SCELBI, was advertised in the March 1974 issue of QST, an amateur radio magazine.[7]
Indeed, INRA was originally planning to use PDP-8 computers for process control, but the Micral N could do the same for a fifth of the cost. An 8-inch floppy disk reader was added to the Micral in December 1973, following a command of the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique. This was made possible by the pile-canal, a buffer that could accept one megabyte per second. In 1974, a keyboard and screen were fitted to the Micral computers. A hard disk (first made by CAELUS then by Diablo) became available in 1975. In 1979, the Micral 8031 D was equipped with a 5" 1/4 inches hard disk of 5 Megabytes made by Seagate.
The following Micral computers successively used the Intel 8080 at 1 MHz (Micral G and Micral S), Zilog Z80 (Micral CZ) and Intel 8088 as microprocessors. The Micral M was a multiprocessor. The original SYSMIC operating system was renamed Prologue in 1978. Interestingly, Prologue was able to perform real-time multitasking, and was a multi-user system. The last Micral designed by François Gernelle was the 9020.[1] In 1981, R2E was bought by Groupe Bull. Starting with the Bull Micral 30, which could use both Prologue and MS-DOS, Groupe Bull transformed the Micral computers into a line of PC compatibles. François Gernelle left Bull in 1983.
Truong's R2E sold about 90,000 units of the Micral that were mostly used in vertical applications such as highway toll booths and process control.
Litigation followed after Truong started claiming that he alone invented the first personal computer. The courts did not judge in favor of Truong, who was declared "the businessman, but not the inventor", giving in 1998 the sole claim as inventor of the first personal computer to Gernelle and the R2E engineering team.
In the mid-1970s, Philippe Kahn was a programmer for the Micral.[8][9] Kahn later headed Borland which released blockbusters Turbo Pascal and SideKick in 1983.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Timeline of Computer History". Computer History Museum. http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?year=1973. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
- ^ Death of Andre Truong ZDNet France. April 6, 2005
- ^ Andre Truong, father of the microcomputer, passed away silicon.fr. April 4, 2005
- ^ Allan, Roy A. (2001). A History of the Personal Computer, Allan Publishing, ISBN 0968910807. eBook on archive.org. Chapter 4
- ^ The first microcomputer in history, born of the encounter between agronomy and computer INRA Press release. 10/12/2003
- ^ http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=352 R2E MICRAL-N. old-computers.com.
- ^ Allan, Roy A. (2005). "What was the First Personal Computer?", A Bibliography of the Personal Computer, ISBN 0-9689108-4-X. eBook on archive.org
- ^ McCracken, Harry (October 2003). "PCWorld, Software Pioneer Looks Back--and Ahead: Philippe Kahn speaks out on Borland, camera phones, and the future.". http://www.pcworld.com/article/112719/software_pioneer_looks_backand_ahead.html. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
- ^ Parks, Bob (October 2000). "Wired Magazine, The Big Picture - Borland International Inc.'s Philippe Kahn". http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/kahn.html. Retrieved 20 April 2006.
External links
- R2E Micral 1972-1985 Federation of Bull Teams Virtual Museum of French computers
- History of Bull-Micral microcomputers Federation of Bull Teams Virtual Museum of French computers
- Birth of the Modern Personal Computer: Micral N of François Gernelle
- Gernelle and Truong
- A picture of the Front panel of Micral-N
- François Gernelle LA NAISSANCE DU PREMIER MICRO-ORDINATEUR : LE MICRAL N Proceedings of the second symposium on the history of computing (CNAM, Paris, 1990)
- François Gernelle Communication sur les choix architecturaux et technologiques qui ont présidé à la conception du « Micral » Premier micro-ordinateur au monde Proceedings of the fifth symposium on the history of computing (Toulouse, 1998)
- French patent FR2216883 (number INPI: 73 03 553), German patent DE2404886, Dutch Patent NL7401328, Japanese patent JP50117333 (inventor François Gernelle) RECHNER, INSBESONDERE FUER REALZEIT-ANWENDUNG (August 8, 1974)
- French patent FR2216884(number INPI: 7303552), German patent DE2404887, Dutch patent NL7401271, Japanese patent JP50117327 (inventor François Gernelle) KANAL FUER DEN INFORMATIONSAUSTAUSCH ZWISCHEN EINEM RECHNER UND SCHNELLEN PERIPHEREN EINHEITEN (August 8, 1974)
- U.S. Patent 3,974,480: Data processing system, specially for real-time applications
- U.S. Patent 4,040,026: Channel for exchanging information between a computer and rapid peripheral units (pile-canal)
- MICRAL documentation at bitsavers.org
Categories:- Early microcomputers
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