François Gernelle

François Gernelle (born December 20, 1944) is a French engineer, computer scientist and entrepreneur famous for inventing the first micro-computer using a micro-processor, the Micral N.^[1]

Education

In the late 1960s, Gernelle earned an engineering degree at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. In 1978, he earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the Pierre Mendès-France University of Grenoble.

Career

Intertechnique and R2E

In 1968, he was hired by Intertechnique, a company specialized in electronic measurement for aviation. There he discovered the Intel 8008 microprocessor and imagined all its potential applications. As his hierarchy didn't share his views on the i8008 development capacity, he resigned in 1972 and joined R2E, a company created and led by Paul Magneron.^[2] He designed the Micral N micro-computer to answer a request of INRA^[3][4] to measure agricultural hygrometry.^[5] During this project, he granted two patents.^[6][7][8] In 1973 he supported the Micral N and, with the company's growth, helped to design 20 other multi-user microcomputers for some were multi-processor one.^[9]

Bull Micral

In 1981, the Bull company acquired R2E and he then joined the new entity Bull Micral. But the company wanted him to design IBM PC compatible machines and François Gernelle didn't agree because he thought this machine was poorly designed, using an 8 bit single-tasking single-user i8088 powered by a poor operating system. In his mind, this kind of poor computer design was a dead-end at a time where really good micro-processors existed and offered capacity to design powerful multi-user and multi-tasking systems at medium and even low cost.

FORUM International

In 1983, he resigned from Bull and founded a new company named FORUM International to create professional computers powered by Prologue OS.

References

1. "R2E Micral1972".
2. Barthe, Oscar (2016-11-04). "LMI 35 ans : Micral était une aventure formidable". Le Monde Informatique (in French). Retrieved 2023-01-15.
3. Perrier, Alain (2003-12-10). "Le premier micro-ordinateur de l'histoire, né de la rencontre entre l'agronomie et l'informatique" [The first personal computer in history, born from the meeting of agronomy and computer science]. www.inrae.fr. Archived from the original on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
4. Beltran, Alain; Griset, Pascal (2007). Histoire d'un pionnier de l'informatique : 40 ans de recherche à l'Inria. Les Ulis, France: EDP sciences. ISBN 978-2-86883-806-3. OCLC 377996828.
5. Six, Nicolas (2023-01-15). "Il y a cinquante ans, en France, naissait le Micral N, premier micro-ordinateur commercial au monde" [Fifty years ago, in France, the Micral N was born, the first commercial microcomputer in the world]. Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-01-15.
6. Petitgirard, Loïc (2020). "Biographie de l'ordinateur R2E-Micral, ou comment faire exister un « micro-ordinateur » dans les années 1970s" [History of the R2E-Micral computer: how to make a "microcomputer" exist in the 1970s]. Technologie et Innovation (in French). 5 (2). doi:10.21494/ISTE.OP.2020.0480. S2CID 216501910.
7. Fr 7303553, Gernelle, François, "Ordinateur, en particulier pour des applications en temps réel", issued 1974-08-30
8. Fr 7303552, Gernelle, François, "Canal pour échange d'informations entre un ordinateur et des organes périphériques rapides", issued 1974-08-30
9. Maireau, Roma; Boucetta, Nadia (2019). "Le Micral N : premier micro-ordinateur – Mardi 11 juin 2019 à 14h30". www.rouillac.com (in French). Archived from the original on 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2023-01-15.

External References

• This article is based on the French Wikipedia article.
• (in French) Interview with F. Gernelle issued in Le Choc du Mois issue #18 of december 2007 Archived 2012-06-21 at the Wayback Machine.
• (in French) «La naissance du premier micro-ordinateur: le Micral N» ("Birth of the first micro-computer: the Micral N") article written by F.Gernelle where he talks about his career at R2E, Bull and the creation of FORUM International.
• Ryan, Dan (2011). History of Computer Graphics: Dlr Associates Series. Author House. ISBN 978-1-4567-5115-9.