GEC Advert - January 1983

GEC - or General Electric Company plc - was a large British conglomerate with interests in defence, electronics, communications and engineering. It was founded in 1886, making it one of the oldest companies in the computer industry^[1].

It was also a company that whilst not known particularly for its own computers had a hand in those from many other manufaturers, especially via its associations with Plessey (known as GPT) and Amstrad, and Marconi and its chip factory^[2].

Its also had its own financial interests in companies like Dragon, which it first rescued and then owned outright for a while, as well as Acorn offshoot Torch, which it nearly bought.

One of its mainframes - the GEC 4082 - even hosted dial-up service Prestel ^[3]

However, it was not without its critics, as a report for the UK's Labour Party, published in 1980, suggested that the company "could well be ripe for nationalisation".

The report, written by a committee headed by Dame Judith Hart, criticised the UK's microelectronics industry in general, and suggested increased government intervention in the "design, development and marketing of microelectronics".

It was particularly critical of GEC, which it accused of having a "malign influence", and blamed the decline in investment on the closure - by GEC - of Elliott Automation, back in 1971, which it said:

"effectively [ended] the UK stake in the mass market from that day to this".

It also suggested that UK semiconductor company Inmos - a government-founded company which would eventually suck up around £200 million in state funding - should receive more money if needed, but that microtechnology should be directed towards "uses which have a social value", rather than a military value.

It was thought that "a great deal" of chip production and R&D in the UK at the time was directed towards the needs of the defence industry^[4].

Meanwhile, this advert is for GEC's 4150 system - a multi-processor machine which supported 16- and 32-bit processes and no fewer than nine high-level languages. It could also support up to 16 terminals with 160MB of hard drive storage.

Entry-level 4150 systems, which were apparently "low cost", started at £9,250, which is about £42,200 in 2026.

Once Britain's largest non-public-sector employer, parts of the company were sold off to British Aerospace to become BAE Systems, with the rest of GEC continuing as Marconi Communications.

Most of Marconi was eventually bought by Swedish telecoms manufacturer Ericsson, with what was left of GEC becoming Telent.