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) and NextLevel Systems (the cable TV division, which took the GI name with it and was later purchased by Motorola).
Jerrold
GI's original cable TV brand, active from 1948 into the early 1990s. Around 1993, GI dropped the Jerrold branding.
GI Microelectronics
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.