The GE-400 series were
time-sharing
In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...
Information Systems computers by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
introduced in 1964 and shipped until 1968.
System description
The GE-400 series (Compatibles/400) came in models: 415, 425, 435 (1964), 455 and 465.
GE-400 systems had a word length of
24 bits which could contain binary data, four
six-bit BCD characters, three eight-bit (
ASCII
ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...
) characters or four signed decimal digits. GE-400 systems had
magnetic-core memory
In computing, magnetic-core memory is a form of random-access memory. It predominated for roughly 20 years between 1955 and 1975, and is often just called core memory, or, informally, core.
Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magneti ...
with a cycle time of 2.7 microseconds (435) or 5.1 microseconds (425). The 425 and 435 had memory of 32k (32,768) words and 64k (65,536) words, respectively. The 455 and 465 had memory of 32k (32,768) words and 64k (65,536) words, respectively. As today's computers use bytes to designate memory size, the memory sizes of the GE-400 would be 98,304 bytes and 196,608 bytes. The systems supported up to eight
channels
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...
for input/output.
The GE-425 GE-435 were batch computers with no communication capabilities. The GE-455 and GE-465 were the timesharing versions. These timesharing computers had a
Datanet-30
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 c ...
front end to provide the communications capability at 110 baud originally (10 CPS) and later, with a later hardware upgrade, to handle 300 baud (30 CPS). The GE-465 was the most common version and supported up to 50 users simultaneously.
The GE 412 (1962) was an incompatible computer system with a 20-bit word length intended for
process control
Industrial process control (IPC) or simply process control is a system used in modern manufacturing which uses the principles of control theory and physical industrial control systems to monitor, control and optimize continuous Industrial processe ...
applications.
Unique features
GE-400 systems featured a "variable length, relocatable
accumulator"
which could be set programmatically to a length of one to four words and relocated to overlay any four adjacent locations in memory (modulo four). "The accumulator can be moved to the data to be processed, rather than moving the data."
Successor systems
The 400 series was succeeded by the incompatible 36-bit
GE-600 series
The GE-600 series is a family of 36-bit Mainframe computer, mainframe computers originating in the 1960s, built by General Electric (GE). When GE left the mainframe business, the line was sold to Honeywell, which built similar systems into the 1 ...
.
See also
*
GE-200 series
GE 210 advertisement from 1960
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'' (GE-205/215/225/235). The GE-210 of 1960 was not compatible ...
*
GE-600 series
The GE-600 series is a family of 36-bit Mainframe computer, mainframe computers originating in the 1960s, built by General Electric (GE). When GE left the mainframe business, the line was sold to Honeywell, which built similar systems into the 1 ...
References
External links
GE-400 Time-sharing information systems: Bring a powerful computer to the fingertips of all your people , 102646147 , Computer History Museum
{{General Electric
General Electric mainframe computers
Transistorized computers
Computer-related introductions in 1964
24-bit computers