General Automation
| File:GeneralAutomation.svg | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Anaheim, California |
Key people | Larry Goshorn and Burt Yale, co-founders |
| Products | Minicomputers |
GA General Automation was an American company, founded in 1968 by Burt Yale and Larry Goshorn[1] (a former marketing executive and a salesman from Honeywell), which manufactured minicomputers and industrial controllers. General Automation was originally located in Orange, California. In the late 1970s, GA relocated to Anaheim, California.
In 1971, Ray Noorda, the future CEO of Novell, joined GA as executive vice-president. In 1971 General Automation increased its sales to $10.6 million and showed its first profit of $3,000. In 1972, sales increased to $16 million with net income of $1.56 million. By 1973 sales jumped to $30.4 million.[2]
In 1990, GA reported a loss of $221,000 on revenues of $39,248,000.
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.[3]
By 2002, General Automation was doing business under the name GA eXpress, Inc. In 2003 GA eXpress filed a Form 8-K with the SEC stating it was may go into receivership.[4]
Products
[edit | edit source]- SPC-12[5] (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
- SPC-8 (Nov 1968)[6][7][8]
- GA 18/30 (June 1968, IBM 1800 and IBM 1130-compatible)[9]
- SPC-16/30, /50 & /70 (November 1971)[10]
- SPC-16/40, /45, /65 & /85 (January 1972)[11]
- LSI-12/16 (January 1974)[12]
- These computers were initially produced with silicon on sapphire circuit technology provided by Rockwell International[13][14] but yield problems caused a switch to conventional ICs by 1975.[15]
- GA 16/110 and 16/120 (December 1976)[16]
- GA 16/220 (July 1978)
- GA 16/330
- GA 16/440
- GA 16/460
- GA Zebra 1700/1750[18]
- Introduced in 1985, a Motorola 68000 computer running Xenix or Pick Operating System
- Parallel Computers, Inc. – fault-tolerant supermicro/minicomputer based on Unix, acquired 1987, sold 1988[19]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Datamation, September 1968, p. 137
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Datamation, May 1969, p. 136
- ^ Datamation, November 15, 1971, p. 112
- ^ Datamation, January 1972, p. 5
- ^ Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Datamation, January 1974, p. 105
- ^ Datamation, January 1975, p. 18
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- 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
- Defunct computer companies based in California