General Automation
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Anaheim, California |
Key people | Larry Goshorn, co-founder |
| Products | Minicomputers |
GA General Automation was an American company, founded in 1968 by Larry Goshorn (a former marketing executive and a salesman from Honeywell), which manufactured minicomputers and industrial controllers.
In 1994, General Automation announced it would be relocating from Anaheim to Irvine. It announced it would be phasing-out its manufacturing operations but would retain its 50 employees.[1]
Products
- GA SPC-12[2] (Jan 1968)
- Priced at $6400 and claiming $4,000 worth of free options
- Totally integrated, binary, parallel, single address processor
- 8-bit data and 12 bit address
- 4,096 words (8 bit bytes) of memory with a 2.2 microsecond cycle time
- Shared command concept that permits the SPC-12s 8-bit memory to handle 12-bit instructions.
- Features included a real-time clock, expandable memory to 16K, a teletype interface, a control panel and a priority interrupt
- GA SPC-8 (Nov 1968)[3][4][5]
- GA 18/30 (June 1968, IBM 1800 compatible)[6]
- GA SPC-16/30, /50 & /70 (November 1971)[7]
- GA SPC-16/40, /45, /65 & /85 (January 1972)[8]
- LSI-12/16 (January 1974)[9]
- These computers were initially produced with silicon on sapphire circuit technology provided by Rockwell International[10][11] but yield problems caused a switch to conventional ICs by 1975.[12]
- GA 16/110 & /120 (December 1976)[13]
- GA 16/220 (July 1978)
- GA 16/330
- GA 16/440
- GA 16/460
- GA Zebra 1700/1750 (Introduced in 1985, a Motorola 68000 computer running Pick Operating System)
- Parallel Computers, Inc. – fault-tolerant supermicro/minicomputer based on Unix, acquired 1987, sold 1988[14]
References
- ^ "General Automation Inc.: The company said Tuesday..." Los Angeles Times. November 30, 1994. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
- ^ Datamation, September 1968, p. 137
- ^ "Low Cost Computer Has 4K Memory". Computerworld. 2 (39): 7. 25 Sep 1968.
- ^ "Across the Editor's Desk - Computing and Data Processing Newsletter: SPC-8, A NEW GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER FROM GENERAL AUTOMATION, INC". Computers and Automation: 60. Oct 1968.
- ^ SPC-8 general purpose computer. General Automation, Inc. 1968.
- ^ Datamation, May 1969, p. 136
- ^ Datamation, November 15, 1971, p. 112
- ^ Datamation, January 1972, p. 5
- ^ Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
- ^ "Rockwell Cancels SOS uC" (PDF). Microcomputer Digest. 1 (7): 1, 4. January 1975. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
- ^ Datamation, January 1975, p. 18
- ^ *"Mini Maker Offering Micro". December 6, 1976. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
- ^ Olmos, David (August 3, 1988). "Parallel Computer Acquired 16 Months Ago: General Automation to Sell Money-Losing Subsidiary". Los Angeles Times.
External links
Categories:
- Minicomputers
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct manufacturing companies based in California
- Defunct technology companies based in California
- Companies based in Anaheim, California
- Computer companies established in 1968
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Defunct computer systems companies
- Technology companies established in 1968
- 1968 establishments in California