Micral

Micral N

Micral is a series of microcomputers produced by the French company Réalisation d'Études Électroniques (R2E), beginning with the Micral N in early 1973.

In 1986, three judges at the The Computer Museum, Boston – Apple II designer and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak, early MITS employee and PC World publisher David Bunnell, and the museum's associate director and curator Oliver Strimpel – awarded the title of "first personal computer using a microprocessor" to the 1973 Micral.[1] The Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer based on a microprocessor (in this case, the Intel 8008).[2]

The use of a microprocessor earned the Micral the name "microcomputer", used for the first time in print in the June 21, 1973 issue of Electronics magazine.[2][3]

The Computer History Museum currently says that the Micral is one of the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computers.[4] The 1971 Kenbak-1, invented before the first microprocessor, is considered to be the world's first "personal computer". That machine didn't have a one-chip CPU but instead was based purely on small-scale integration TTL chips.[5]

Micral N, the first commercially available microprocessor-based computer

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.[6][7][8] Alain Perrier of INRA was looking for a computer for process control in his crop evapotranspiration measurements.[9][10] The software was developed by Benchetrit. Beckmann designed the I/O boards and controllers for peripheral magnetic storage. Lacombe was responsible for the memory system, I/O high speed channel, power supply and front panel. Gernelle invented the Micral N, which was much smaller than existing minicomputers. The January 1974 Users Manual called it "the first of a new generation of mini-computer whose principal feature is its very low cost," and said, "MICRAL's principal use is in process control. It does not aim to be an universal mini-computer."[11]

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, the ROM-based MIC 01 monitor and the ASMIC 01 assembler,[11] 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 memory. The Micral N could support parallel and serial input/output. It had 8 levels of interrupt and a stack. The computer was programmed with punched tape, and used a teleprinter or modem for I/O. The front panel console was optional, offering customers the option of designing their own console to match a particular application.[11] 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.[12]

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 Shugart.

Later models

Following the April 1974 introduction of the Intel 8080, R2E introduced the second and third Micral models, 8080-based at 1 MHz, the Micral G and Micral S.

In November 1975, R2E signed Warner & Swasey Company as the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of the Micral line in the United States and Canada. Warner & Swasey marketed its Micral-based system for industrial data processing applications such as engineering data analysis, accounting and inventory control.[13] R2E and Warner & Swasey displayed the Micral M multiple microcomputer system at the June 1976 National Computer Conference. The Micral M consists of up to eight Micral S microcomputers, each with its own local memory and sharing the common memory so the local and common memory look like one monolithic memory for each processor. The system has a distributed multiprocessor operating system R2E said was based on sharing common resources and real-time task management.[14]

R2E CCMC Portal laptop in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris

Some time after the July 1976 introduction of the Zilog Z80, came the Z80-based Micral CZ. The 8080-based Micral C, an intelligent CRT terminal designed for word processing and automatic typesetting, was introduced in July 1977.[15] It has two Shugart SA400 minifloppy drives and a panel of system control and sense switches below the minifloppy drives. Business application language (BAL) and FORTRAN are supported. By October, R2E had set up an American subsidiary, R2E of America, in Minneapolis.[16] The Micral V Portable (1978) could run FORTRAN and assembler under the Sysmic operating system, or BAL.[17] 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. R2E offered CP/M for the Micral C in 1979.[18]

The R2E Micral CCMC portable Portal microcomputer made its official appearance in September 1980 at the SICOB show in Paris. It was designed and marketed by the studies and developments department of François Gernelle of the french firm R2E Micral at the request of the company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting. The Portal was based on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz. It weighed 12Kg and its dimensions were 45cm x 45cm x 15cm, It provided total mobility. Its operating system was Prologue.

Later Micrals used the Intel 8088. The last Micral designed by François Gernelle was the 9020.[19] 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.

Legacy

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.[20][21] Kahn later headed Borland which released Turbo Pascal and Sidekick in 1983.

A Micral N was sold for 62,000 euros to a US bidder in Seattle by the auctioneer Rouillac at the Artigny Castle in France, on June 11, 2017.[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "What Was The First PC?". Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  2. 1 2 Strimpel, Oliver (Fall 1986). "The Early Model Personal Computer Contest" (PDF). The Computer Museum Report. The Computer Museum, Boston. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  3. ↑ "Japanese microcomputer ready to compete with U. S. machines in world market". Electronics. June 21, 1973. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  4. ↑ "Timeline of Computer History". Computer History Museum. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  5. ↑ Erik Klein. "Kenbak Computer Company Kenbak-1". Old-computers.com. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
  6. ↑ Death of Andre Truong ZDNet France. April 6, 2005
  7. ↑ Andre Truong, father of the microcomputer, passed away silicon.fr. April 4, 2005
  8. ↑ Allan, Roy A. (2001). A History of the Personal Computer, Allan Publishing, ISBN 0-9689108-0-7. eBook on archive.org. Chapter 4
  9. ↑ The first microcomputer in history, born of the encounter between agronomy and computer INRA Press release. 10/12/2003
  10. ↑ http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=352 R2E MICRAL-N. old-computers.com. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
  11. 1 2 3 Micral N Users Manual, p. 66, 76. January 1974. bitsavers.org.
  12. ↑ 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
  13. ↑ R2E Finds U.S. Associate, Computerworld, Nov 5, 1975
  14. ↑ French Firm Coming With Micro System, Computerworld, May 31, 1976
  15. ↑ Micral CRT from R2E Has 24-K Byte CPU, Computerworld, July 11, 1977
  16. ↑ Micral C Microcomputer System Operator's Manual October 1977. bitsavers.org
  17. ↑ Micral V Portable Microcomputer System Operator's Manual December 1978. bitsavers.org
  18. ↑ R2E of America Offers CP/M For The Micral C Microcomputer, InfoWorld, Feb 28, 1979
  19. ↑ Birth of the Modern Personal Computer: Micral N of François Gernelle Retrieved 2012-02-03.
  20. ↑ McCracken, Harry (October 2003). "PCWorld, Software Pioneer Looks Back--and Ahead: Philippe Kahn speaks out on Borland, camera phones, and the future.". Retrieved 31 July 2011.
  21. ↑ Parks, Bob (October 2000). "Wired Magazine, The Big Picture - Borland International Inc.'s Philippe Kahn". Retrieved 20 April 2006.
  22. ↑ "The Micral N, the First Microcomputer, to be Sold at Auction in June - Life in France". Life in France. 2017-05-13. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
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