Bull computers Bibliography
While the name of Bull is quite known among computers specialists, the number of books and publications is relatively scarce in French and almost nil in English. The following list is not (yet) comprehensive and additions are welcome. While some of the following references address the whole French industry, the list does not include publications concerning French computer industry and research outside Bull.
Barreau, J & Mouline A, Politique et Stratégies industrielles dans
l'électronique Française (1958-1992) in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
An overview of the relations between the French government, the Research bodies and
the industry.
Bataille, M, The Gamma 60: The computer that was ahead of its time in Honeywell Computer Journal vol 5 n°3, 1971 (in English)
Bellec, J , Histoire des Grands Systèmes de Bull, General Electric et
Honeywell in Actes du 5e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Toulouse 1998, ISBN
2-854-28472-0. (in French)
From GE-600 to DPS-9000, a summary of the large scale systems.
Brulé, J-P, L'informatique malade de l'Etat, Paris,
Les Belles Lettres,1993, ISBN 2-251-48000-5. (in French)
Jean Pierre Brulé was PDG of Compagnie Honeywell-Bull and CII-HB in the 70s. He was
ousted in 1982.. The larger part of his book include his memories from his management
period at Bull. His thesis is that the failure of French EDP industry was due to the
erratic involvement of governments from the 1960s till the 1980s.
Brulé, J-P, L'échec de la prise de contrôle d'Olivetti par
Saint-Gobain in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
Jean-Pierre Brulé gives his testimony about the failure of the attempted take-over
of Olivetti by Saint-Gobain. That may have caused a deathly delay in inserting Bull in the
office business.
C
Chargueraud, M-A, Bull face à IBM. Financement et technique (1954-1964), résumé de la communication faite au 4e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique, IRISA 1995 (in French)
Chevance, P-R, Le projet Y, in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire
de l'Informatique, IRISA, Rennes, 1995
The author testifies about a project of a new system initiated in CII, around
1974; as a tentative answer to the FS (future systems) of IBM. Persons
interested in the architecture trends of the 1970s (IBM S38, Intel iAPX-432... ) will like
reading this paper authored by the main architect of Y project.
D
Darrieulat, O, Le ministère de la Guerrre et la mécanographie dans les
années 1930: entre la nécessité de soutenir la Compagnie des Machines Bull et le besoin
de solutions compétitives., in Actes du 4e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique, IRISA, 1995 (in French)
The author attempted to find a continuity from the 1930s to the late 1980s in the
relations between the French Government and Bull
Davous, P, Bataille, M.and Harrand, Y., le Gamma 60 in L'Onde Electrique
n°405, 1960 (in French)
Several articles in this magazine address in details the architecture and the
technology of Gamma 60. The text of those articles has been made available on the Web by
FEB.
Dreyfus, P., System design of the Gamma 60," Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference, Los Angeles, CA, 1958
Dreyfus, P., Programming design features of the Gamma 60 Computer in EJCC proceedings, 1959
E
Eltgen, J-J, Histoire de la Magnétographie et des Imprimantes Magnétiques in
Actes du 5e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Toulouse 1998, ISBN 2-854-28472-0.
(in French)
The invention of the magneto-graphic printing, an alternative to laser printing,
developed by Bull Belfort from the 70s.
G
Gernelle, F, Choix architecturaux et Technologiques ayant présidé à la
conception du Micral in Actes du 5e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Toulouse
1998, ISBN 2-854-28472-0. (in French)
François Gernelle was the primary architect of the Micral N first computer based on
8008 microprocessor, produced in the world. The paper describes the design choices having
lead to the production of Micral N and its successors in R2E (later absorbed in Bull
Micral).
H
Harrand, Y., Architecture et technologie des Ordinateurs. Trois cas
d'école in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
Yves Harrand compares the architecture of three computers he was involved during the
late 1950s and the 1960s into: the Gamma 60 at Bull, the PB250 at SETI, a French licensee
of Packard-Bell, and the Pallas developed by him at SETI.
Heide, L, The role of patents and standards in shaping the punched card
systems of Bull from 1918 to 1952 in Actes du 5e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Toulouse 1998, ISBN 2-854-28472-0. (in English)
The paper of Lars Heide, a Danish researcher, lightens the issues on the computer
pre-history and the arguments between Compagnie des Machines Bull and Hollerith
(later IBM) about punched card machines patents.
Hurtaut, Ph., De la carte perforée à l'ordinateur, vingt années chez
"Bull", FEB 1999 (200 pages in French) NEW
An autobiography of an employee of Bull between 1948 and 1968. He was assigned to
positions from maintenance engineer to salesman in North European countries. The book is
an extremely interesting description of the atmosphere of the company and is more useful
to understand it than to identify the source of problems that plagued it in the 1960s.
Philippe Hurtaut's testimony is one of the rare written description of the sales
organization of Bull.
Humblot, D. and others, Naissance d'un Ordinateur (Bull DPS 7000), Bull,
1992. (in French).
A book gathering articles written by designers of the first CMOS mainframe produced
by Bull
I
Institut d'Histoire de l'Industrie Informatique, politique industrielle,
Europe Entre Plan Calcul et Unidata. Actes des colloques du 4 mai 1990 et du 7
juin 1995 . Paris 1999 Editions Rive Droite, ISBN 2-84152-026-9 (in French)
Presentations and discussions between the main actors of the birth and disappearance
of CII Compagnie Industrielle de l'Informatique.
L
Leclerc, B, Le Gamma 60. Une aventure humaine et Technologique in
Actes du colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.en France, Grenoble, 1988, (in French)
Bruno Leclerc was a key technical leader in the Gamma 60 project.
M
Morel, E. ADA: le pourquoi et le comment. in Actes du 3e colloque
de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
Etienne Morel was a member of the Jean Ichbiah's CII-HB team that designed the ADA
language for the U.S. Department of Defense. He summarizes here the history of that
development.
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E, Bull l'histoire internationale d'un géant français. in
Science et Vie Micro n°74, 1990 (in French)
A summary of the first research by Pierre-Eric Mounier-Kuhn an objective overview of
the history of Bull. between its origin till the late 1970s.
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E, Le plan calcul, BULL et l'industrie des composants: les
contradictions d'une stratégie. in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
The historian Dr. Pierre Mounier-Kuhn analyses the French computer industry during
the 1960s.and the early 70s. Contrarily to most of the papers about the Plan calcul, it is
not biased in favor of the CII or of Bull-General Electric.
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E, L'industrie informatique française et les armées (1948-1966): in Actes du 4e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique; Rennes, 1995 (in French)
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E,, Product Policies in two French computer Firms: SEA and Bull (1948-1964) in Global Perspectives of Business Information Conference, 1992 (in English)
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E, La Compagnie des Machines Bull et l'industrie informatique
américaine: compétition et coopération (1950-1960), in Hans Pohl Competition and
Coopération of Enterprises (19th-20th century), Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997.
(in French, abstract in english)
This paper describes comprehensively the history of the relations between CMB and
Remington Rand and of their 10 years agreement during the 1950s.
Mounier-Kuhn, P-E, Specifications of Twelve early computers made in France in IEEE Annals of the History of Computers vol 12 n°1, 1990
O
Oldfield, H, King of the Seven Dwarfs. General Electric's ambiguous challenge
to the Computer Industry, Los Alamitos, IEEEE Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8186-7383-4 (in
English).
Homer Oldfield describe the early days of the involvement of GE in the computer field. He
was the first manager of the computer department in Phoenix AZ. he left the company in
1959. The second half of the book address the history of the Computer Department between
1959 and 1970 and contains some harsh opinions about Bull at the time of the merger. The
book includes also an history of the initial period of the GE-600, from testimonies of
John Couleur and others. The GE-400 line history is quite sketchy and its adoption, through
Bull by the European market, would have merited more words.
A summary of that book has been published in IEEE Annals of the History of
Computers, 1997.
P
Ploton, Y, Itinéraire, Bull, 1992 (in French, version in English?),
Paris, 1992
An illustrated brochure of the Bull history gathered by Yves Ploton assisted by FEB
members.
A second edition under the responsibility of Mathieu Barrois has been published in March
1998 (Bull 01 F8 30GD 01)
Postolica, V and all. The history of computer science in Romania in Actes
du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, I(in
English)
The paper gives a description of the licensing of CII computers by and Romania
during the 1970s.
Q
Quatrepoint J-M and Jublin J, French Ordinateurs. De
l'affaire Bull à l'assassinat du Plan Calcul, Paris, Editions Alain Moreau, 1976 (in
French).
Jean-Michel Quatrepoint was in the newspaper Le Monde, an observer of the
computer industry disputes. He opposed the J-P Brulé policy and was lobbying in
favor of
a merger of CII into a European Unidata..
R
Richomme, P, La Compagnie des Machines Bull & l'Occupation, du bon usage
des brevets d'invention in Actes du 5e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Toulouse 1998, ISBN 2-854-28472-0. (in French)
Paulette Richomme lightens the confrontation of Compagnie Machines Bull and
Wanderer-Werke during the German Occupation in 1940-1944. She shows that the patents
portfolio of Bull was successfully used to strongly limit its forced participation to the
Reich war effort.
S
Shelley, A William & King J, A Family History of Honeywell's Large Scale
Computer System, in IEEE Annals of the history of Computing, Vol 19, N°4, 1997
Bill Shelley, one of the key hardware designers of the Phoenix engineering team,
describes n this article the origin of the GE's 600 product line and gives an
overview of the follow-on products at Honeywell. He and Jane King also give a description
og GECOS II operating systems. This short paper don't describe the NEC products marketed
by Honeywell from 1994, nor the recent CMOS products developed by Bull HN.
Smothermann, M, and Tumlin TJ, An evaluation of the design of the Gamma
60 in Actes du 3e colloque de l'Histoire de
l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in English)
Those American researchers evaluate the original features of Gamma 60, and compare
its architecture with some US research ventures. The papers include a comprehensive
bibliography of Gamma 60.
Smothermann M, Bull Gamma
60 (1958), (in English)
A presentation of Gamma 60 technical characteristics that is part of a
survey of the author's gallery of
Historical Machines
T
Thévenet, V., Coment l'utilisateur devint un usager in Actes du 3e
colloque de l'Histoire de l'Informatique.Sophia-Antipolis, INRIA, 1993, (in French)
Victor Thévenet analyzed the evolution of data processing through the migration
from punched cards equipments to the contemporary computers, from the user point of view.
V
Vieillard, G, L'affaire Bull, Spag-Chaix, 1968
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