Jump to page content

C. P. Clare & Company

Contents

History

C. P. Clare & Comany, Pendar, Clare-Pendar, Clare, General Instrument and the separate Pendar Électronique in France have together a complex and still poorly-understood history. See history for the most recent reconstruction of this history. For products specific to General Instrument (in particular semiconductors) see the separate General Instrument section. This section only covers product ranges under official Clare or General Instrument ownership; see the Pendar section for the unrelated activities of the separate Pendar Électronique that followed a buyout of European production from General Instrument.

Products

Switches

The North American and European products had some crossover in the form of the low-profile reed switches, but were otherwise separate. US-made switches were sometimes branded C.P. Clare, Clare-Pendar or GI, but S840 series in particular seems to have always been marked only as “ASM MEXICO” indicating assembly in Mexico.

Series Branding Type
SF/SG/SH/SI/SK Clare Reed (high-profile)
SFL/SGL/SIL Clare Reed (low-profile)
S700 “ASM MEXICO” Low-profile foam and foil with hysteresis; the sliders are marked “ASM MEXICO” while the PCB bears the series name and “General Instrument Computer Products Division”
S820 Clare-Pendar Reed (tall); a later design has been found marked both “CLARE-PENDAR” and “ASM MEXICO”
S830 Clare-Pendar, G.I. Reed (tall)
S840 “ASM MEXICO” Metal contact
S880 None; “ASM MEXICO” Reed (short)
S890 CP Clare, “ASM MEXICO” Foam and foil
S950 General Instrument These are a derivative of Alps KCC/SKCC Series, and may have been manufactured by Alps Electric on behalf of General Instrument (otherwise, Alps must have sold the plans to the tooling).

The modifications chart also mentions S860 series but Electro-Mech have no documentation on this.

Unknown types

Furieux Furet, who made just one post to Deskthority in July 2019, found an unidentified switch in a “Pendar” keyboard. There is only one photograph. As the person who wrote the post is located in France, the suggestion is that this is a French-made keyboard. The switch—with its pair of safety-pin–shaped external springs—looks like it may be foam pad capacitive. Pendar did specifically make capacitive keyboards in France, so this seems highly likely.

Keyboards

Patents

Patents relevant to Clare/Pendar computer keyboards and switches.

Company Patent Title Filed Published Notes
Clare Pendar Co US 3771636 A Space bar assembly 1971-04-02 1973-11-13 This is the characteristic Clare-Pendar space bar assembly with the interlocking bars
General Instrument Corporation EP 0072784 A2 Keyswitch design 1982-08-10 1983-02-23 A design for a single-sided foam and foil PCB where the capacitor pads are through-hole soldered!
General Instrument Corporation US 4450332 A Keyswitch design 1982-08-25 1984-05-22 This appears to be for the foam and foil switch series mentioned earlier
General Instrument Corporation US 4454562 A Keyswitch with telescoping plunger 1982-09-15 1984-06-12
General Instrument Corporation US 4453198 A Linear feel keyswitch with hysteresis 1982-09-15 1984-06-05 That is a strange definition of “linear”
General Instrument Corporation US 4433225 A Keytop levelling mechanism 1983-02-22 1984-02-21 This may be the origin of scissor switches

97564

Some North American–made products have “97564” moulded into them or stamped on them, which at least one supplier has since mistaken for a manufacturer part number. This is in fact the CAGE (Commercial and Government Entity) code. Depending where you look, this number has been applied to: