Article about General Electric 15CL100

[Tom9589]

Thanks, Ben. That explains a lot.

I suspect that RCA had a patent on the color oscillator circuit which might have prompted GE to use a different circuit. GE's circuit also had a lower component count, often a design motivator.

[benman94]

Even at RCA parts count and cost were the PRIMARY motivators. Part of the reason my Great-Uncles left RCA in 1956 was the oppressive corporate culture, and the insistence that the cheapest possible circuitry be utilized, actual performance be damned. They were given a lot more leeway and freedom over at Sperry-Rand, mostly because they were playing with defense department money...

[Hagstar]

The brilliance of RCA corporate culture as well can't be overstated. The visionaries there saw what engineers couldn't- that performance was a red herring without a viable base of sets in use, and cost was the major barrier there in addition to the not ready for primetime capacitors and other components economically available. The other companies' me-too projects were essentially stunts not expected to make money done for marketing/bragging rights. The color demodulation section used in the CTC100 was likely bigger than Madman Muntz would want for an entire B&W set