General Instrument (GI)

General Instrument (GI) was an electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, PA specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. The company was active until 1997, when it split into General Semiconductor (power semiconductors) which was later acquired by Vishay Intertechnology in 2001,In addition to being a major supplier of masked-ROM and calculator chips in the 1970s, GI developed an EAROM (Electrically Alterable ROM), 8 and 16-bit microcontrollers, and a family of sound chips. GI spun the Microelectronics division off as Microchip Technology in 1989.