Approximate computer and component costs
Initially the high cost of computers inevitably lead to the requirement for a number of highly competent staff to maximise their usage.
The custom-built Nicole and Carine systems must have cost a lot at the time, far more than the standard central DEC system, which was finally acquired after 1975, when third party peripherals could also be added.
Very approximate purchase prices (from memory!) are shown with post-inflation conversion to 2017 Euros in brackets.
| Year | Hardware | Original price | 2017 price |
| 1979 | Tektronix 4010 graphics storage screen terminal | 70 000 FRF | 36 500 € |
| 1981 | The DEC-1091S replacement, 1 Mword memory, 2 GB fixed disks, 4 tapes, etc. | 8 000 000 FRF | 3 300 000 € |
| 1981 | VT100 alpha-numeric vdu terminal | 10 000 FRF | 4 100 € |
| 1984 | VAX11/730, 2MB memory/ R80 128MB fixed disk/ RL02 10MB Cartridge disk/ 2 DECtape-II cassettes (for 8085 boot processor), LA100 console. Here the cost of the first machine bought for initial software development (1984) With the potential of three further acquisitions (D11, D17, D22) DEC reduced the price for D11; A second-hand 11/730 was found for D17, and D22 was finally fitted with microVAX-II. | 358 358 FRF | 107 000 € |
| 1985 | !MB ECC 32bit VAX memory | 10 000 FRF | 3 000 € |
| 1984 | PDP11/24 system (IN20) with RL02 disks, graphics terminal, etc. | 400 000 FRF | 119 000 € |
| 1985 | IBM PC-AT cpu/ 640 kB memory/ 20 MB disk 2x5" floppies Hercules Graphics (720x350 pixels) Keyboard | 50 000 FRF 15 000 FRF 10 000 FRF | 13 900 € 4 100 € 1 300 € |
| 1985 | Macintosh plus 1024 K + external 800K floppy drive + Imagewriter II External hard drive 20 MB | 28 000 FRF 7500 FRF | 7 300 € 2000 € |
| 1986 | ATARI 1040ST/ 640x200x16 colours/ 1 MB memory/ 1 3.5" floppy Sony 13" trinitron monitor | 4 000 FRF 2 500 FRF | 1 150 € 700 € |
| 1987 | ATARI memory 1 MB | 1 600 FRF | 500 € |
| 1987 | IEC11 GPIB (IEEE-488) UNIBUS interface | 33 000 FRF | 8 400 € |
| 1988 | DEC LN03R PostScript printer | 72 000 FRF | 17 800 € |
| 1988 | DEUNA Ethernet UNIBUS interface | 30 000 FRF | 4 500 € |
| 1988 | microVAX 3500 (IN5) | 400 000 FRF | 99 000 € |
| 1989 | VT220 alpha-numeric vdu terminal. (these were bought in packs of 5!) | 2 500 FRF | 600 € |
| 1989 | VAXstation 3100/30 8 MB, 128MB disk TK50 tape ethernet 14" display (D11,D17..) | 100 000 FRF | 24 000 € |
| 1990 | MicroVAX-II (D22) | 100 000 FRF | 24 000 € |
| 1990 | VAXstation | 90 000 FRF | 21 000 € |
| 1993 | SGI indy, 20" CRT | 14 0000 FRF | 29 900 € |
| 1993 | Mac PowerBook 180 33MHz 68030/ 4 MB memory/ 120 MB disk/ 9.8" color TFT | 26900 FFR | 5800 € |
| 1999 | SGI-O2 64 bit workstation (no monitor) | 110 000 FRF | 21 300 € |
| 2000 | Sony VAIO PGC-Z600TEK laptop 600 MHz/ 256 MB memory/ 20 MB disk | 3 000 € | 3 800 € |
| 2002 | IBM XEON workstation 3 GHz cpu/ 4 GB memory/ 200MB disk | 4 000 € | 4 939 € |
| 2002 | Samsung 19" TFT display | 2 500 € | 3 000 € |
| 2005 | Sony VAIO laptop S4-XP PC 2 GHz/ 1 GB memory/ 100 GB disk | £ 2 000 | 2 324 € |
| 2008 | MacBook white 13" 2.4 GHz Core2 cpu/ 1 GB memory/ 120 GB disk | £ 800 | 1 250 € |