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Our Heritage

Building trusted technology through years of innovation

From early computing milestones to today’s digital solutions, our story is shaped by scientific expertise and industrial progress that continue to guide how we innovate and deliver value.​

The mission of the Bull Teams Federation

The Bull Teams Federation (Fédération des Equipes Bull) is an association under the French Law of 1901 founded in 1986. It stems from a gathering of passionate men and women, some of them clients or partners, most of them former Bull employees, who have devoted a great effort over the years to safeguarding and promoting the historical and cultural heritage of the Bull.

Our teams rely on the skills of FEB members to preserve and enrich the Group’s collections and archives, and more generally those of French IT, while making them accessible to historians, researchers and students.

The collection of hardware designed and marketed by Bull or by competitors is currently divided between the Angers industrial site and the Clayes-sous-Bois campus in France, while a subset of the collection dedicated to printing systems is on display in Belfort. FEB Belgium has donated its archives to the Computer Museum NAM-IP in Namur. Some important equipment developed by Bull is also on display or stored in the reserves of other French institutions, such as the “Musée des Arts et Métiers”, the “Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie” and the “Association pour un Conservatoire de l’Informatique et de la Télématique” (ACONIT). All French machines are listed in an inventory managed by FEB.

Bull’s friends continue to gather to retrace this human, technological and economic adventure.

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The mission of the Fédération des Équipes Bull is to safeguard and promote the historical and cultural heritage of Bull and French IT.​

A glimpse of history

To exploit the statistical machine patents filed by the Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull (1882-1925) in the 1920s, “H.W. Egli-Bull”, a subsidiary of Swiss company H.W. EGLI, was founded in 1931 in France, offering a larger potential market than in Switzerland.

Based in central Paris, the company specialised in the manufacture of tabulators, punch card sorters and punching machines. These machines were constantly being improved, to the great satisfaction of their users. The T30 tabulator was the first machine to leave Paris’ workshops. It was equipped with an innovative printing device based on a wheel system, allowing numeric and alphanumeric characters to be printed at a higher speed than its competitors. Bull’s pioneering spirit, the innovative nature of its activities, and the financial backing of the French “Syndicat des Utilisants” and later the Calliès-Aussedat family all contributed to the company’s success against its main competitors: IBM and Remington Rand.

Fredrik-Rosing-Bull

Key dates and achievements

 

1931

Foundation of Bull

1986

Creation of the FEB association

2014

Atos acquires Bull

2016

Launch of Atos Quantum, Europe’s 1st industrial quantum computing program

2017

Launch of the Quantum Learning Machine, the world's most powerful quantum simulator

2022

Unveiling of the BullSequana XH3000 exascale supercomputer, followed in 2025 by the XH3500, a version designed for HPC-AI requirements

2025

Breaking of the exascale barrier with JUPITER supercomputer, ranked as Europe’s most powerful system and the 4th in the world

48 years

GCOS 7 product range lifetime

55

Supercomputers ranked among the TOP 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world

Key dates and achievements

1931

1931

Foundation of Bull

1986

1986

 

Creation of the FEB association

2014

 

Acquisition de Bull par Atos

2016

2016

 

Launch of Atos Quantum, Europe’s 1st industrial quantum computing program

2017

2017

 

Launch of the Quantum Learning Machine, the world's most powerful quantum simulator

2022

2022

 

Unveiling of the BullSequana XH3000 exascale supercomputer, followed in 2025 by the XH3500, a version designed for HPC-AI requirements 

2025

2025

 

Breaking of the exascale barrier with JUPITER supercomputer, ranked as Europe’s most powerful system and the 4th in the world

58 of our supercomputers ranked among the TOP500 most powerful systems in the world

48 years

GCOS 7 product range lifetime

1931

Foundation of Bull

1986

Creation of the FEB association

2014

Atos acquires Bull

2016

Launch of Atos Quantum, Europe’s 1st industrial quantum computing program

2017

Launch of the Quantum Learning Machine, the world's most powerful quantum simulator

2022

Unveiling of the BullSequana XH3000 exascale supercomputer, followed in 2025 by the XH3500, a version designed for HPC-AI requirements

2025

Breaking of the exascale barrier with JUPITER supercomputer, ranked as Europe’s most powerful system and the 4th in the world

48 years

GCOS 7 product range lifetime

55

Number of our supercomputers ranked among the TOP 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world