General Automation

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.

General Automation, Inc.
TypePublic
Founded1968
HeadquartersAnaheim, California
Key people
Larry Goshorn, co-founder
ProductsMinicomputers

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]

References
  1. "General Automation Inc.: The company said Tuesday..." Los Angeles Times. November 30, 1994. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  2. Datamation, September 1968, p. 137
  3. "Low Cost Computer Has 4K Memory". Computerworld. 2 (39): 7. 25 Sep 1968.
  4. "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.
  5. SPC-8 general purpose computer. General Automation, Inc. 1968.
  6. Datamation, May 1969, p. 136
  7. Datamation, November 15, 1971, p. 112
  8. Datamation, January 1972, p. 5
  9. Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
  10. "Rockwell Cancels SOS uC" (PDF). Microcomputer Digest. 1 (7): 1, 4. January 1975. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  11. Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
  12. Datamation, January 1975, p. 18
  14. Olmos, David (August 3, 1988). "Parallel Computer Acquired 16 Months Ago: General Automation to Sell Money-Losing Subsidiary". Los Angeles Times.
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