General Micro-electronics (GMe) was an American

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

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. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...

, 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 (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

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

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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 tube-based

electronic calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable Electronics, electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. ...

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, a 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 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies {{electronics-stub