General Micro-electronics (GMe) was an American

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

company in the 1960s. It was formed by three former members of

Fairchild Semiconductor Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, it became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of int ...

, and is thus one of the "Fairchildren". It was acquired in 1966 by Philco-Ford and became their Microelectronics Division. With Frank Wanlass as director of research and engineering, GMe was the first company to design, fabricate, and sell MOS

integrated circuits An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Transistor count, Large ...

. The first MOS chips were small-scale integrated chips for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

satellites. In 1964, Wanlass demonstrated a single-chip 16-bit shift register he designed, with an incredible (for the time) 120 transistors on a single chip. That same year, the company entered an agreement to convert a

Victor Comptometer Victor Technology LLC (also known as Victor Calculator) is a supplier of printing calculators, scientific calculators, financial calculators, basic calculators, and desktop accessories with headquarters in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Victor products ...

tube-based electronic calculator to all-IC form, the Victor 3900, with a planned introduction in early 1966. The task proved to be much more difficult than expected, and GMe was left almost insolvent. The company was purchased by Philco-Ford, at which time Victor gave up on the product. They remarketed the system as the Philco 3900, but by the time it was ready for market less-expensive alternative had appeared. Several members of the GMe team would go on to found Electronic Arrays and produce a six-chip calculator system that was successful in the early 1970s.

References

Semiconductor devices Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1964 American companies established in 1964 Computer-related introductions in 1964 1966 mergers and acquisitions {{electronics-stub