Micral | 1973

Micral

 Micral is a series of microcomputers produced by the French company Réalisation d'Études Électroniques (R2E) since early 1973. Micral N is one of the first commercially available microprocessor-based computers, released earlier that year.

In 1986, three judges at the Computer Museum in Boston—Steve Wozniak, designer of the Apple II and co-founder of Apple Inc.; David Bunnell, early MITS employee and publisher of PC World; and Oliver Streamfelt, the museum's associate director and curator—awarded the title of "first personal computer using a microprocessor" to the Micral from 1973. Micral N was the first commercially available, non-kit-based personal computer built on a microprocessor (in this case, the Intel 8008 microprocessor).

The Computer History Museum currently states that the Micral is one of the first commercially available, non-kit-based personal computers. The 1971 Kenbak-1, which was based on small-scale integrated circuit TTL chips rather than a microprocessor, is considered the world’s first "personal computer."

Micral N began as a project when André Truong Tron Thi, the founder of R2E, requested the development of a computer for the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in June 1972. Alain Ferrière at INRA was looking for a computer for process control to measure crop evapotranspiration. The software was developed by Bensétrit, while Beckman designed the I/O board and controller for the peripheral magnetic storage device. Lacombe was responsible for the memory system, I/O high-speed channels, power supply, and the front panel. François Gernelle invented the Micral N. Micral N was significantly smaller than existing minicomputers. In January 1974, the user manual described it as "the first model of a new generation of minicomputers, characterized by an extremely low price" and noted that "the primary use of the Micral is for process control, and it does not aim to be a general-purpose minicomputer."

The computer was expected to be delivered in December 1972, and Gernelle, Lacombe, Bensétrit, and Beckman had to work 18-hour shifts to meet the deadline. The software was written using a cross-assembler from the Intertechnique Multi-8 minicomputer. This computer was based on the Intel 8008 microprocessor, running at 500 kHz. It used a backplane bus called Pluribus, which had 74-pin connectors, allowing for 14 boards to be installed. With two Pluribus buses, up to 24 boards could be supported. Micral N used MOS memory, not core memory, and supported parallel and serial I/O, along with 8 interrupt levels and a stack. The computer was programmed using punch cards, with I/O through a teleprinter or modem. The front panel console was optional, and customers could design their own. It was delivered to INRA in January 1973 and commercially released in February 1973 for approximately $1,750, marking the beginning of the personal computer era as a cost-effective alternative to minicomputers.

France was the first country to produce a microcomputer. A year later, in March 1974, North America's first microcomputer, the SCELBI, was advertised in QST, an amateur radio magazine.

INRA had initially planned to use a PDP-8 minicomputer for process control, but the Micral N cost only one-fifth as much and could perform the same functions. In December 1973, an 8-inch floppy disk reader was added to the Micral, as directed by the Atomic Energy Commission. This disk reader used a buffer called "Pire-Canal," capable of processing 1MB of data per second. In 1974, a keyboard and screen were added to the Micral. In 1975, a hard disk was introduced, and in 1979, the Micral 8031 D, with a 5MB 5-inch hard disk, was released.

Later models, including Micral G (1MHz) and Micral S (1MHz), based on the Intel 8080, were introduced. In November 1975, R2E entered into an exclusive manufacturing and marketing agreement with Warner & Swasey for the Micral line in the U.S. and Canada. Warner & Swasey used Micral-based systems in industrial data processing applications such as engineering data analysis, accounting, and inventory management. In June 1976, R2E and Warner & Swasey exhibited the Micral M, which was composed of up to eight Micral S microcomputers, each with its own local memory, sharing common memory to appear as one massive memory system.

After the release of the Zilog Z80 in July 1976, the Z80-based Micral CZ was introduced. In July 1977, the 8080-based Micral C, an intelligent CRT terminal for word processing and typesetting, was released. By 1979, Micral C included the CP/M operating system. The Micral V Portable was released in 1978, running FORTRAN and assembler under the Sysmic operating system, which was renamed Prologue in 1978 and supported real-time multitasking.

In September 1980, R2E's Micral CCMC Portal was officially announced at the SICOB exhibition in Paris. This portable microcomputer used the Intel 8085 processor and weighed 12kg. Its operating system was Prologue.

The Micral computers were later upgraded to use Intel 8088 processors, with the final model being the Micral 9020. In 1981, R2E was acquired by Groupe Bull, and the Micral computers were transformed into PC-compatible models. François Gernelle left Bull in 1983.

R2E's Micral sold about 90,000 units, most of which were used in specialized applications such as highway tolls and process control.

Truong claimed to be the sole inventor of the Micral, but the court did not accept his claim. In 1998, the court ruled that he was "an entrepreneur, not an inventor," and acknowledged Gernelle and the R2E engineering team as the inventors of the first personal computer.

In the mid-1970s, Philippe Kahn worked as a programmer at Micral. He later led Borland, releasing Turbo Pascal and Sidekick in 1983.

In June 2017, Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, purchased a Micral N through an auction at Château d'Artigny in France. This computer is now on display at his Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle.

In 2023, the French preservation group "Association MO5.com" announced that it had acquired a Micral N in 2021 and is currently in the process of restoring and documenting it.