François Gernelle (born December 20, 1944) is a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and entrepreneur famous for inventing the first micro-computer using a micro-processor, the

Micral Micral is a series of microcomputers produced by the French company Réalisation d'Études Électroniques (:fr:R2E, R2E), beginning with the Micral N in early 1973. The Micral N was one of the first commercially available microprocessor-based compu ...

Education

In the late 1960s, Gernelle earned an engineering degree at the

Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers The (; ; abbr. CNAM) is an AMBA-accredited French ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement''. It is a member of the '' Conférence des Grandes écoles'', which is an equivalent to the Ivy League schools in the United States, Oxbridge in th ...

. In 1978, he earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the

Pierre Mendès-France University The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Established as the Unive ...

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

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 The Intel 8008 ("''eight-thousand-eight''" or "''eighty-oh-eight''") is an early 8-bit microprocessor capable of addressing 16 KB of memory, introduced in April 1972. The 8008 architecture was designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) and ...

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. He designed the Micral N micro-computer to answer a request of INRA to measure agricultural hygrometry. During this project, he granted two patents. 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.

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

External References

* This article is based on the French Wikipedia article. *
Interview
with F. Gernelle issued in Le Choc du Moisbr>issue #18 of december 2007
. *
«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. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gernelle, Francois French engineers 1944 births Living people French computer scientists Conservatoire national des arts et métiers alumni