General Automation

General Automation, Inc.
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

[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

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

[lat-1988-14] 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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