General Instrument

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General Instrument

General Instrument (GI) was an electronics

Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
manufacturer based in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, IL

Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
specializing in semiconductor

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
s and cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required....
equipment. The company was active until 1997, when it split into (power semiconductors) which was later acquired by Vishay Intertechnology

Vishay Intertechnology

Vishay Intertechnology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductors and passive electronic components. Vishay has several production centres in Israel, China and five other Asian countries, Europe and the Americas where it produces rectifiers, diodes, MOSFETs, optoelectronic products, selected integrated circuits, resistor...
in 2001, CommScope and NextLevel Systems (the cable and satellite TV division, which later reverted to GI name).

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Encyclopedia

General Instrument (GI) was an electronics

Electronics

Chicago

Illinois

Semiconductor

Cable television

Vishay Intertechnology

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. is an United States, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, also designing and selling wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers....
and became Motorola Connected Home Solutions, and was renamed Home and Networks Mobility in 2007. Moses Shapiro, father of former Monsanto head Robert B. Shapiro

Robert B. Shapiro

Robert B. Shapiro is a businessman and attorney who has worked extensively with the biochemical corporations G.D. Searle and Monsanto. Before working in this sector he was Vice-President and legal counsel at General Instrument from 1972 to 1979....
, was Chairman from 1969 to 1975. Frank G. Hickey served as CEO from 1975 to 1990, and Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th United States Secretary of Defense under President of the United States Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st United States Secretary of Defense under President George W....
did from 1990 to 1993.

Video Cipher Division

General Instrument produced receivers for old C

C band

C band is a name given to certain portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as a range of wavelengths of light, used for communications....
and Ku band

Ku band

The Ku band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to "K-under" ?in other words, the band directly below the K-band....
satellites. They also produced video cipher units; as well as digital equipment. 4DTV was a system for picking up free and ciphered analog, and free and ciphered digital. It also brought the interactive guide. The product line included:

2700 Series: on screen displays, C/Ku switching, digital sound, satellite memory increases with the model number.

2600 Series: similar to 2400 except with on-screen displays.

2400/2500 Series: no on-screen displays, everything is controlled from remote, C/Ku compatible.

350 Regular: simple receiver with a separate dish mover (some will have a stationary G5 satellite).

350i Super: extensive on-screen displays, 50 satellites (C or Ku with external switch), digital sound.

450i/550i/650i: extensive on-screen displays, C/Ku pre-programmed satellites, digital sound, extras.

4DTV: interactive program guide, two favorite lists, C/Ku band, many other features.

American Totalisator Corporation/AmTote

American Totalisator

The American Totalisator Company, formally known today as AmTote International and often referred to simply as AmTote, is a company which specialized in totalisator equipment used to control parimutuel betting at horse racing , greyhound racing and jai-alai facilities....
was a division of General Instrument Corp. It manufactured tote board

Tote board

A tote board is a large, numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track or at a telethon .The first tote boards were manufactured for the horse racing industry by the American Totalizator Company, and "tote board" is probably a colloquialism for totalizator....
s for the horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrianism sport that has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot racing of Ancient Rome are an early example, as is the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology....
industry. It is now owned by horse-track operator Magna Entertainment Corporation

Magna Entertainment Corporation

Magna Entertainment Corp. is a Gambling and horse racing company in North America with several holdings in Europe and Australia, and is North America's largest thoroughbred racing company, based on revenue and holdings....
.

Jerrold

Jerrold was GI's original cable TV brand, active from 1948 into the early 1990s. Around 1993, GI dropped the Jerrold branding. The Jerrold brand was prominent on both addressable and non-addressable cable TV converter boxes that were used on non-cable ready sets and cable-ready sets with premium pay services. "Jerrold" is the middle name of the company's founder, Milton Jerrold Shapp

Milton Shapp

Milton Jerrold Shapp was the Democratic Party governor of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1979 and was the first Jewish governor of Pennsylvania....
, who became Pennsylvania's 42nd governor

List of Governors of Pennsylvania

The Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the head of the executive branch of Pennsylvania's government and the commander-in-chief of the U.S....
in 1971.

GI Microelectronics

GI Microelectronics was a manufacturer of LSI

Integrated circuit

In electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin Wafer of semiconductor material....
circuits and a pioneer in MOS

MOSFET

The metal?oxide?semiconductor field-effect transistor is a device used to amplify or switch electronic signals. The basic principle of the device was first proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925....
technology and EAROM (Electrically Alterable ROM), with both off-the-shelf and custom circuits. GI spun the division off as Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology is an USA manufacturer of microcontroller, memory and analog semiconductors. The company was founded in 1987 when General Instrument spun off its microelectronics division as a wholly owned subsidiary....
in 1987.

In 1980, their product catalog included:

16-bit Microprocessor: 1600 and , a 16-bit CPU, used in the GIMINI TV-game set and in Mattel
Mattel

Mattel Inc. is the world's largest toy importing company based on revenue. The products it produces include Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles....
's Intellivision
Intellivision

The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600....
8-bit Microcontroller: the PIC1650, an NMOS
NMOS logic

nMOS logic uses n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors to implement logic gates and other digital circuits. nMOS transistors have three modes of operation: cut-off, triode, and saturation ....
chip. The CMOS
CMOS

Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor , is a major class of integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, Static Random Access Memory, and other digital logic circuits....
version of this chip is the basis of today's PIC microcontroller
PIC microcontroller

PIC is a family of Harvard architecture microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology, derived from the PIC1640 originally developed by General Instrument's Microelectronics Division....
s.
ROM
EAROM
Telecommunications chips

Other products were the SP0256 Intellivoice

Intellivoice

The Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module was an adapter for the Intellivision, Mattel's home gaming console, that utilized a voice synthesizer to generate audible speech....
, a single-chip speech generator, and the famous AY-3-8910/11/12 series of sound chip

Sound chip

A sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode integrated circuit electronics....
s.