|
 R2E
|
|
|
|
MICRAL-N
|
The
Micral-N, introduced in 1973 and powered by Intel's 8008 chip, was the
first commercial non-kit computer based on a microprocessor. It was
conceived in France by François Gernelle and commercialised by a company
called R2E in 1973. The term "microcomputer" first
appeared in print in reference to the Micral-N.
The Micral-N was initially developed for the I.N.R.A. (French
National Institute for Agronomic Research) which didn't had sufficient
budget to buy the lowest "mini" at the time (Digital Equipment
PDP-8). The development began in July 1972, in a basement, with F. Gernelle
and 3 of his collaborators. The first prototype was delivered January, 15th
1973!
The 8008 that powered the Micral was essentially an 8-bit 4004. It was
originally intended to be a custom chip for Computer Terminals Corp. of
Texas (later known as Datapoint). CTC rejected the 8008 because it was too
slow and required too many supporting chips, but when Intel offered it to
the open market, it was quite successful.
The Micral-N was working at 500 KHz, running approximately 50,000
instructions per second. It was set on a bus, did have a MOS memory,
parallel and serial I/O cards, a real-time system. In one word, it had all
the characteristics of nowadays computers. First systems were manufactured
and sold at the amazing price (at the time) of 8,500 French Francs (about
$1300)
Supposedly it was the first personal computer programmed by Philippe
Kahn, founder of Borland.
R2E, which got under way the Micral-N, developed a whole series of
computers based on the most powerful processors of the time: 8080, Z80,
8088, constantly adding improvements like monitor-keyboard in 1974, hard
disk in 1975, etc. Every machine was managed by the SYSMIC monitor,
which became PROLOGUE in 1978, a multitask system created in France
too. The last of this system was the Micral 20. After that, Bull, who had
became the owner of R2E, joined MSDOS standard...
Picture
and text parts, courtesy of Federation des Equipes Bull (Federation of
Bull teams)
|
