Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
R
2
E
's second generation computer, the Micral S, utilized the Intel
8080 microprocessor. (Courtesy of Association pour un conservatoire
de l'informatique et de la télématique (
ACONIT
), Grenoble, France,
photograph by Z. Stachniak.)
During the
SICOB
show,
R
2
E
presented its own 8008-based
microcomputer, the Micral.
Before we enter the
SICOB
'73 exhibit area in search of the
MCM
/70 and the Micral, we should back up and examine the
Micral's origins. The corporate histories of
MCM
and
R
2
E
have
many parallels. Both companies were 1971 startups, brought
to life by gifted entrepreneurs. Both introduced early micro-
processor-based products aimed at markets in which the use
of minicomputers was unnecessarily expensive, complex, and
inflexible.
R
2
E
was founded by Vietnam-born engineer (André) Thi T.
Truong around the same time as Kutt was incorporating
KSI
.
In early 1972, Truong, like Kutt, was touring Silicon Valley
in search of electronics novelties. He returned with the 8008
microprocessor. In mid-1972 the Institute Nationale de la Re-
cherche Agronomique (
INRA
), the French National Agricultural
