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general, a cost-effective alternative to minicomputers in applica-
tions that did not require the full computing power of a mini.
“You don't need a hammer to crush a fly,” reads the headline
on the Micral advertising brochure distributed by R 2 E during
the 1974 National Computer Conference in Chicago. “You
wouldn't use the hammer to crush a fly just as you wouldn't
take a minicomputer to compute a small process.” With the an-
alogy established, R 2 E proclaimed,
To crush a fly, a fly swatter is surely more efficient than a
hammer. As complete but not as fast … Micral is surely
more efficient than a minicomputer in a lot of real-time
applications: process control, teletransmission, scientific
instrumentation, teaching, etc. Micral is the link between
wired circuitry and minicomputers.
However, the American market turned out to be much more
difficult to penetrate than the European. While the Micral's
technical features and its modest price of $1,950 (for the basic
configuration) generated 1,000 orders by the end of 1974 from
European industrial and business customers, in the United
States R 2 E 's line of Micral computers was largely ignored by in-
dustry as well as by the technical and trade press. The situation
did not improve even after the Micral S was licensed to Warner
& Swasey, Electronic Product Division, of Solon, Ohio. 8 It was
not until June of 1976 that the Warner & Swasey Micral Micro-
computer System ($12,000 for the WS Micral in basic config-
uration) was shown in the United States during the National
Computer Conference in New York. By that time the techno-
logical novelty represented by the Micral, as well as the price
advantage, was all but lost.
Returning to the SICOB 1973 exhibit in Paris: the MCM /70 and
the Micral did not go entirely unnoticed by the technology ob-
servers, but the exhibition floor really belonged to other small
 
 
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