History of the R2E-Micral computer: how to make a “microcomputer” exist in the 1970s
Loïc Petitgirard · 2020
The article presents the history of an emblematic the Micral system, invented within the R2E company in the 1970s. It aims to show the interplay between levels of technical culture throughout this very complex innovation process: the omnipresence of technological skills, the importance of thinking about uses and users; and the reflexivity of the actors during the creation process – including echoes to the small is beautiful trend in the 1970s. Analysis at these various levels makes it possible to give meaning to the conception of Micral and its successive versions: in the 1970s, in a computer world dominated – in industrial terms and in terms of collective representations – by mainframe computers, Micral was invented and promulgated the very concept of the microcomputer, long before the whirlwind of the IBM PC in the 1980s.