The GE-200 series was a family of small mainframe computers of the 1960s, built by General Electric (GE). GE marketing called the line Compatibles/200 [1] (GE-205/215/225/235). [2] The GE-210 of 1960 [3] was not compatible with the rest of the 200 series. [4]
The main machine in the line was the GE-225 (1961). [5] [3] It used a 20-bit word, of which 13 bits could be used for an address. Along with the basic central processing unit (CPU) the system could also have had a floating-point unit (the "Auxiliary Arithmetic Unit"), or a fixed-point decimal option with three six-bit decimal digits per word. It had eleven I/O channel controllers, and GE sold a variety of add-ons including disks, printers, and other devices. The machines were built using discrete transistors, with a typical machine containing about 10,000 transistors and 20,000 diodes. They used magnetic-core memory, and a standard 8 kiloword system held 186,000 magnetic cores. They weighed about 2,000 pounds (1.0 short ton; 910 kg). [6] [7]
The GE-215 (1963) [3] [8] was a scaled-down version of the GE-225, including only six I/O channels and only 4 kilowords or 8 kilowords of core.
The GE-205 (1964). [2]
The GE-235 (1964) [3] was a re-implementation of the GE-225 with three times faster memory than the original. [9] The GE-235 consisted of several major components and options:
The series was designed by a team led by Homer R. “Barney” Oldfield, and which included Arnold Spielberg (father of film director Steven Spielberg). GE chairman Ralph J. Cordiner had forbidden GE from entering the general purpose computer business, rejecting several proposals by Oldfield by simply writing "No" across them and sending them back. Oldfield, somewhat deceptively, claimed that the GE-200 series would be industrial control computers. By the time Cordiner found out otherwise, it was too late and the machine was in production; Cordiner fired Oldfield at the product rollout. Even though the machine was selling well, Cordiner ordered that GE leave the computer business within 18 months (it actually took several years). [10] [11]
Through the early 1960s GE worked with Dartmouth College on the development of a time-sharing operating system, which would later go on to become the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS). The system was constructed by attaching a number of teletypewriters to a smaller GE machine called the DATANET-30 (DN-30), which was a small computer that had evolved from an earlier process-control machine.
DTSS actually ran on the DN-30. The DN-30 accepted commands one at a time from the terminals connected to it, and then ran their requested programs on the GE-235. The GE-235 had no idea it was not running in batch mode, and the illusion of multitasking was being maintained externally.
In 1965 GE started packaging the DN-30 and GE-235 systems together as the GE-265. The GE-265 achieved fame not only for being the first commercially successful time-sharing system, but it was also the machine on which the BASIC programming language was first created.
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston.
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The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) is a discontinued operating system first developed at Dartmouth College between 1963 and 1964. It was the first successful large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented, and was also the system for which the BASIC language was developed. DTSS was developed continually over the next decade, reimplemented on several generations of computers, and finally shut down in 1999.
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The DATANET-30, or DN-30 for short, was a computer manufactured by General Electric designed in 1961-1963 to be used as a communications computer. It was later used as a front-end processor for data communications. It became the first front end communications computer. The names on the patent were Don Birmingham, Bob McKenzie, Bud Pine, and Bill Hill.
Arnold Meyer Spielberg was an American electrical engineer instrumental in contributions "to real-time data acquisition and recording that significantly contributed to the definition of modern feedback and control processes". For General Electric he designed, with his colleague Charles Propster, the GE-225 in 1959. He cites as his greatest contribution the first computer controlled "point of sale" cash register. His children include filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and screenwriter Anne Spielberg.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Central Processor and Control Console (with 4K or 8K memory, typewriter, and card reader)
As a computer designer and engineer, Arnold worked on and helped design the groundbreaking GE-225 mainframe computer in 1960, which would go on to form the basis for the coding tools that would pave the way for personal computing.