General Automation

General Automation, Inc.
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.

Products

GA SPC-12[1] (Jan 1968)

Priced at $6400 and claiming $4,000 worth of free options
Totally integrated, binary, parallel, single address processor
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)[2][3][4]
GA 18/30 (June 1968, IBM 1800 compatible)[5]
GA SPC-16/30, /50 & /70 (November 1971)[6]
GA SPC-16/40, /45, /65 & /85 (January 1972)[7]
LSI-12/16 (January 1974)[8]

These computers were initially produced with silicon on sapphire circuit technology[9] but yield problems caused a switch to conventional ICs by 1975.[10]

GA 16/110 & /120 (December 1976)[11]
GA 16/220
GA 16/330
GA 16/440
GA 16/460
Parallel Computers – fault-tolerant supermicro/minicomputer based on Unix, acquired 1987, sold 1988[12]

References

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
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

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[1] Datamation, September 1968, p. 137

[2] "Low Cost Computer Has 4K Memory". Computerworld. 2 (39): 7. 25 Sep 1968.

[3] "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.

[4] SPC-8 general purpose computer. General Automation, Inc. 1968.

[5] Datamation, May 1969, p. 136

[6] Datamation, November 15, 1971, p. 112

[7] Datamation, January 1972, p. 5

[8] Datamation, January 1974, p. 105

[9] Datamation, January 1974, p. 105

[10] Datamation, January 1975, p. 18

[11] "Mini Maker Offering Micro". December 6, 1976. Retrieved March 7, 2019.

[12] "Mini Maker Offering Micro". December 6, 1976. Retrieved March 7, 2019.

[lat-1988-12] Olmos, David (August 3, 1988). "Parallel Computer Acquired 16 Months Ago: General Automation to Sell Money-Losing Subsidiary". Los Angeles Times.