General Instrument
General Instrument (GI) was a diversified
electronics manufacturer which specialised in
semiconductors and
cable television equipment. The company was active until
1997, when it split into
General Semiconductor (power semiconductors),
CommScope and
NextLevel Systems (the cable and satellite TV division, which later reverted to GI name). The new (post-split) General Instrument Corporation was later acquired by
Motorola and became the Motorola
Connected Home Solutions division.
Donald Rumsfeld once served as
CEO of General Instrument, from
1990 to
1993.
A division of General Instrument Corp. It manufactured tote boards for the horse racing industry.
See
Harry L. Straus.
GI's original cable TV brand, active from 1948 into the early 1990s. Around 1993, GI dropped the Jerrold branding.
GI Microelectronics was a manufacturer of
LSI circuits and a pioneer in
MOS technology and
EAROM (Electrically Alterable ROM), with both off-the-shelf and custom circuits. GI spun the division off as
Microchip Technology in
1989.
In 1980, their product catalog included:
*16-bit Microprocessor: 1600 and
1610, a 16-bit CPU, used in the
GIMINI TV-game set and in
Mattel's
Intellivision*8-bit Microcontroller: The PIC1650, an
NMOS chip. The
CMOS version of this chip is the basis of today's
PIC microcontrollers
*ROM
*EAROM
*Telecommuncations chips
Other products were the
SP0256, a single-chip speech generator, and the famous
AY-3-8910/11/12 series of
sound chips.
