Semiconductor History

During the mid 1970s, there was a pong-on-a-chip development happening at General Instrument's facility in Glenrothes, Scotland. It was discovered by Ralph Baer, who got it designed into the Coleco Telstar, launched in 1976. It played six games, but only three were offered in Coleco's first product. The GI device was the first single IC to offer multiple games and was made available to every manufacturer, launching home video games as a mass market. It marked the end of discrete systems such as the Magnavox x00 products. The Coleco Telstar was a highly integrated system with only a few external discretes for the GI chip. In 1976 GI were selling the chip in volume for £6 (£40 today) into games that were £30 (£198 today) at the low end. By 1977 GI had a range of game ICs, including car racing, card games, submarine and other ball and paddle variants. It also offered the CP1600 microprocessor for programmable games consoles. The CP1600 eventually became the PIC micro, which has si...

Inside the Telstar. Calculator for Size Comparison The Coleco Telstar was launched in 1976. It played six games, but only three were offered in Coleco's first product. The General Instrument AY-3-8500 was the first single IC to offer multiple games, made available to every manufacturer, launching home video games as a mass market. It marked the end of discrete systems such as the Magnavox x00 products. The Coleco Telstar was a highly integrated system with only a few components for the GI chip. The RF cable/TV Out wrapped round the ferrite core in the photo above was a late addition/modification when Coleco failed its FCC approval. Ralph Baer, who had seen an early demo of the GI chip, and introduced the new General Instrument  IC to Coleco, suggested the addition to suppress EMI. Ed Saks, who was the head of GI had brought the two design guys from GI's Scottish facility to the US to develop the AY-3-8500 fully, and the further chips that came in the following years. ...