In the 1980s the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson M ...

company produced a range of

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

computers based on the 6809E CPU. They were released in several variations (mostly concerning the keyboard or color of the casing) covering the MO and TO series from late 1982 to 1989. While MO and TO models are incompatible in software, most of the

peripheral A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

s and hardware were compatible. These machines were common in France due to the 1980s governmental educational program '' Computing for All (Informatique pour Tous)''.'''' Around 100,000 MO5 and TO7/70 computers were ordered and installed in schools. Export attempts to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

were unsuccessful. It is reported that there were 450,000 Thomson computers in France in 1986. By 1988 Thomson had only sold 60,000 of the predicted 150,000 computers, abandoning computer development the following year. About 84 games were released for the TO7, 194 for the MO5, 3 for the TO7/70, 10 for the TO9, 21 for the MO6, and 128 for the TO8. Most titles were released between 1984 and 1987 and by French companies such as

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ()), also known as Atari Group, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming-related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include ...

Loriciel Loriciel (also sometimes Loriciels) was a French video game developing company that was active from 1983 to the early 1990s. The name is a combination of ''logiciel'', the French word for software, and ''Oric'', the first computer they wrote so ...

, FIL or

Coktel Vision Coktel Vision (also known as Coktel and Coktel Studio) was a French video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Paris. It was best known for its educational game, educational and adventure games. History Coktel Vision w ...

First generation

Thomson TO7 The Thomson TO7, also called ''Thomson 9000'' is a home computer introduced by Thomson computers, Thomson SA in November 1982, with an original retail price of 3750 French franc, FF. By 1983 over 40000 units were produced. About 84 games were rel ...

: produced from 1982 to 1984. Supplied with 24K

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

(16K used by the video) and upgradable to 48K. 8 color display. *

Thomson MO5 The Thomson MO5 is a home computer introduced in France in June 1984 to compete against systems such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. It had a release price of 2390 FF. At the same time, Thomson also released the up-market Thomson TO7/70 ...

: released in 1984 in order to honor the ''Computing for All (Informatique pour Tous)'' plan. Supplied with 48K RAM (32K available to user in

BASIC 1.0 BASIC 1.0 is the standard BASIC language for Thomson computers ( MO5, TO7, etc.), which is the reference for the entire range. This is an implementation of Microsoft BASIC (BASIC-69). It was used to introduce children from France to programming i ...

) and first released with a

rubber keyboard A chiclet keyboard is a computer keyboard with keys that form an array of small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like erasers or "Chiclets", a brand of chewing gum manufactured in the shape of small squares wi ...

. Later it featured a mechanical keyboard. It was edited in a limited edition with a white casing, named "MO5

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (; born 21 June 1955) is a French association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'O ...

". *

Thomson TO7/70 The Thomson TO7, also called ''Thomson 9000'' is a home computer introduced by Thomson SA in November 1982, with an original retail price of 3750 FF. By 1983 over 40000 units were produced. About 84 games were released for the TO7. The TO7 is b ...

: 1984 version with more RAM (64K, upgradable into 128K) and 16 color display. *

Thomson MO5E The Thomson MO5 is a home computer introduced in France in June 1984 to compete against systems such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. It had a release price of 2390 FF. At the same time, Thomson also released the up-market Thomson TO7/70 ma ...

: 1985 export version, with a different casing featuring a mechanical keyboard, a

parallel port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers ( personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (paralle ...

, two

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...

ports, an internal

PAL modulator Composite video, also known as CVBS (composite video baseband signal or color, video, blanking and sync), is an analog video format that combines image information—such as brightness (luminance), color (chrominance), and synchronization, int ...

and an integrated

power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, electric current, current, and frequency to power ...

. File:Thomson MO5 face.JPG, Thomson MO5 File:Thomson MO5 édition Platini! (9368426935).jpg, Thomson MO5 "Michel Platini" edition File:Thomson T 07 by Moehre1992.jpg, Thomson TO7 File:Thomson TO7-70.jpg, Thomson TO7-70

Second generation

Thomson TO9 The Thomson TO9 is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1985. It's based on the Thomson TO7/70 with new features. It included a built-in 320 Kb 3.5" floppy drive unit, and inputs for light pen, joystick, and mouse. The ROM ...

: released in late 1985. Separate keyboard and central unit, 128K RAM and a

3½-inch floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

drive. *

Thomson MO5NR The Thomson MO5 is a home computer introduced in France in June 1984 to compete against systems such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. It had a release price of 2390 FF. At the same time, Thomson also released the up-market Thomson TO7/70 ma ...

: released in 1985–1986. This is a MO6 in a MO5E casing, with an integrated

network interface controller A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter and physical network interface) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface ...

, the ''nanoréseau'' (nano network), which was used in French schools.'''' * Thomson TO16 (prototype) called Theodore (TO d'or): 5 prototypes developed in 1985–1988. Based on a MC-68000 at 8 MHz and a rather good graphic card. *

Thomson MO6 The Thomson MO6 was a Motorola 6809E-based computer introduced in France in 1986. It was intended as the successor to the Thomson MO5 and featured 128 KB of RAM, a text display, and a new built-in Microsoft BASIC interpreter ( BASIC 128). It ...

: released in 1986. 128K RAM and built in tape recorder. Sold in Italy as the Olivetti Prodest PC128. *

Thomson TO8 The Thomson TO8 is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson computers, Thomson SA in 1986, with a cost of 2,990 French franc, FF. It replaces its predecessor, the Thomson TO7/70, while remaining essentially compatible. The new featur ...

: released in late 1986. 256K RAM, 80K ROM with

Microsoft BASIC Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first v ...

512, extra video modes. *

Thomson TO9+ The Thomson TO9+ is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1986. It kept the professional look of the Thomson TO9 by using a separate keyboard (lower end models usually had an integrated keyboard). It's based on the Thomson T ...

: released in late 1986, Separate keyboard and central unit, 512K RAM with a built in

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

and a

drive. * Thomson TO8D : released in late 1987, it was a TO8 with a

drive. File:Thomson TO9 keyboard.jpg, Thomson TO9 File:MO6.jpg, Thomson MO6 File:TO9.jpg, Thomson TO9+ File:Thomson TO8D.jpg, Thomson TO8D

Unix systems

The Micromega was fundamental on the adoption of

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

by the

French government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

, due to the localization of the Unix

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. According to Dominique Maisonneuve, a Unix developer at CERG (Paris): ''"It was thanks to the Micromega that the government became interested in installing Unix. What was needed, was some hardware with a French coloring."'' * Micromega 32: released in 1982, it was a

Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...

-based machine running

Version 7 Unix Version 7 Unix, also called Seventh Edition Unix, Version 7 or just V7, was an important early release of the Unix operating system. V7, released in 1979, was the last Bell Laboratories release to see widespread distribution before the commerc ...

, based on the Fortune 32:16, developed by Fortune Systems Corporation. It had a

68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...

CPU clocked at 5.5 MHz and 256KB of

, expandable to 1MB. The display was monochrome and

text based In computing, text-based user interfaces (TUI) (alternately terminal user interfaces, to reflect a dependence upon the properties of computer terminals and not just text), is a retronym describing a type of user interface (UI) common as an ear ...

. An optional card enabled pixel graphics with a resolution of 800x480. Another expansion card added a

Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...

CPU enabling the machine to run

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...

. External

floppy drives A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

hard disks A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

(with sizes up to 20MB) could be connected. The

RS232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

port could be used for

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

connection. The machine was presented to the public at the 1982 ''Salon des industries et du commerce de bureau (SICOB)'' in the

Paris Expo Porte de Versailles The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles is an exhibition and conference centre in Paris, France. It is located in the 15th arrondissement at Porte de Versailles Métro station between the Boulevard Périphérique and Boulevards of the Marshals. I ...

. Aimed at business and government departments, it was used in French hospitals,

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes a ...

and

scientific research The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The ...

. It was also sold in the Middle East and

. * Micromega 32000: A 1986

Alcatel Alcatel SA was a French industrial conglomerate active between 1963 and 2006. It has roots to ''Compagnie Générale d’Electricité'' (CGE), a conglomerate founded in 1898 as an early state owned cable and telephone equipment company that lat ...

branded machine with a tower layout, supporting Unix SV. The CPU is a

68020 The Motorola 68020 is a 32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1984. A lower-cost version was also made available, known as the 68EC020. In keeping with naming practices common to Motorola designs, the 68020 is usually referred to as t ...

at 16.5 MHz (

68881 The Motorola 68881 and Motorola 68882 are floating-point units (FPUs) used in some computer systems in conjunction with Motorola's 32-bit 68020 or 68030 microprocessors. These coprocessors are external chips, designed before floating point math be ...

optional) with 1 to 4 MB of RAM. It features a 70MB hard drive, supports QIC-24 cartridges and offers

Arcnet Attached Resource Computer NETwork (ARCNET or ARCnet) is a communications protocol for local area networks. ARCNET was the first widely available networking system for microcomputers and it became popular in the 1980s for office automation task ...

network connection. * Micromega PC: a 1986 workstation supporting Unix and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

, and developed based on the PC 7000 XP. * Micromega SX and Micromega SX/T - These machines have a similar box but with a different floppy drive location. The CPU is a 68000 at 11 MHz and RAM is expandable to 2 MB. It supports 45 and 70 MB hard drives and QIC-11 cartridges on the SX/T.

PC compatible

*Micromega 16: released in 1983, it was an

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

machine, similar to the Eagle PC developed in 1982 by

Columbia Data Products Columbia Data Products, Inc. (CDP) is a company which produced the first legally reverse-engineered IBM PC clones, starting with the MPC 1600 series in 1982. It faltered in that market after only a few years, and later reinvented itself as a s ...

. * Thomson TO16 : released in September 1987.

Intel 8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers ...

based

IBM compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central pro ...

PC.

References

External links

Theodore
multi-platform Thomson 8-bit

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...