|
| | General Instrument
Company Pedigree
|
Ascendant Companies |
Descendent Companies |
|
Company |
Comments |
Company |
Comments |
| General
Transistor |
General
Transistor was bought by GI in 1960 and merged in their newly formed
semiconductor division. |
Microchip
Technology |
GI's Microelectronics
Division was spun-off as Microchip Technology, Inc (included the PIC
family of microprocessors). in 1989. |
| Motorola |
GI spun-off its
broadband products division as a company called Next Level Systems in July
of 1997. In early 1998, Next Level changed its name back to General
Instruments. In 2000, Motorola acquired GI. |
| Commscope |
GI's cable products division
was spun-off as Commscope in 1997. |
| General Semiconductor |
GI's power
semiconductor products were spun-off into General Semiconductor in 1997.
In 1997 General Semiconductor acquired ITT Industries' semiconductor
business. General Semiconductor was later bought by Vishay Intertechnology
in 2001 |
Company Overview
General Instrument was founded in
1939. GI was a manufacturer of transistors and diodes in the 1950's and 1960's.
General Instrument produced logic chips in the 1960's. GI created the PIC (Programmable
Intelligent Computer) line of microprocessors in 1976. The microprocessors along
with the rest of the Microelectronics Division were spun-off as Microchip
Technology in 1989. in 1997, the remaining company, which is most noted for its
work with advanced TV and broadband technologies, was restructured and split
into three public companies.
 |
| This is an interesting branding effort GI used to make sure General
Transistor customers knew that GT had become GI. The General
Transistor logo at left morphs into the GI logo on the right. This image
can from a General Instrument Transistor box. This transition wrapped
around two sides of the box. |
Major Achievements
1966 - Early manufacturer of MOSFET
integrated circuits.
Chip Identification
General Instrument Chips
| Microprocessors |
| CPU's |
CP1600, LP8000 |
| MCU's |
PIC Microprocessors: 1650, 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1664
1671 1674 1684 1742 1744
The PIC was later also made by Plessey Semiconductor under second
source agreements
|
| Bit-Slice |
|
| Coprocessors |
|
|
Memory Devices |
| RAM |
|
| ROM |
|
| PROM |
|
| EPROM |
|
| EEPROM |
|
| CCD Memory |
|
| Bubble Memory |
|
|
General Use Support Chips |
| Shift Registers |
|
| Interfaces |
|
| Communications |
|
| Integrated Circuit Logic Chips |
| MOSFET |
Chips with MEM prefix: MEM3021 (clock), MEM3020 (clock),
MEM1005 (RST Flip Flop), MEM1002 (Dual 3-input NOR-gate), MEM1000 (Dual
Full Adder) |
|
