Very sad news indeed. Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International and the man behind Atari, has passed away this past weekend. At 83, he passed away, surrounded by family and friends. People like this don’t come in dozens, so we lost one of the great men of computing.
Jack Tramiel is the founder of Commodore, which originally started out as a typewriter maker. When cheaper Japanese typewriters entered the market, his company was unable to compete. Irving Gould bought a stake in the company, and with that new cash, Commodore switched to producing adding machines. History repeated itself – Japanese adding machines turned out to be cheaper.
On a trip to Japan, Tramiel realised that the mechanical adding machines would be superseded by digital calculators, so using chips from Texas Instruments, Commodore started producing these instead. Soon after, TI, realising how large this market would become, cut out the Commodore middleman, and started making their own calculators.
Faced with yet another crisis, Commodore bought MOS Technology. MOS’ Chuck Peddle convinced Tramiel that personal computers were the next big thing, and using MOS’ iconic 6502 processor, Peddle designed the legendary Commodore PET, the world’s first all-in-one computer, in 1977.
The PET was successful, but was eventually out-competed by the Apple II and Atari 800, which sported colour graphics. Commodore responded with the VIC-20, and, more importantly, with the Commodore 64 – a computer that pretty much defined an era and one of the best selling computers of all time (perhaps the best-selling computer, depending on your definition of ‘computer’).
In early 1984, he left Commodore, only to buy Atari’s home computing and game console divisions from Warner Communications. Like Commodore before it, the newly formed Atari Corporation would produce a number of succesful home computers, such as the Atari ST and the XE.
“We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes” – one of his more famous phrases. We’d like to extend our condolences to Tramiel’s family and friends, and mr Tramiel? Thank you dearly for your contributions to this wonderful industry. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
My father was a big fan of their calculators. He used one up until it up and died and he replaced it with an HP 15C and then a 48G, which he never really warmed to as it wasn’t really a keystroke calculator.
My first computer was a KIM-1, from MOS, and my primary teething machines were early PETs. Even with just 8K and the little chiclet keyboards, the machines were real wonders. The integrated tape recorder pretty much always worked flawlessly, something I could never really say about other tape interfaces. Auto start, auto stop, no volume control – they just worked. The graphic character set let us write all sorts of nifty games and utilities. The mono display was always nice and sharp. Far better than what TVs could provide.
I later jumped to the dark side and got an Atari 800, this was pre-C64. But even then I never warmed to the C64, I was always enraptured by the Atari hardware. I loved the Display List. However at $595, the C64 was an absolute steal and it was right for them to sell them by the truckload.
We’re going through the home computer revolution again today, the world of the old school 8-bits. Only now it’s in the mobile environment, and the machines are just that much less accessible due to the difficulty in programming them. But still, we’re in that age of new wonders every quarter combined with balkanization of platforms and idioms. It’s an exciting time.
Sad to see old luminaries pass, but was exciting to share the world with them.
Edited 2012-04-09 20:07 UTC
*Jack Daniels passed away*
Wow, another KIM-1 owned.
When I read the thread on SlashDotOrg about this, not one KIM-1 owner posted. Made me think that the old timers no longer existed there.
The KIM-1 I owned was used as the brains for a large robot my friend Steve and I built. However the cheap 5v relays we used melted under the load of the motors and since we wired the relay directly to the chip outputs we ended up burning out the interface
Today of-course I know better and would have used those relays to control higher current handling relays that in turn would have controlled the motors.
Maybe because some of us were playing with different things like the Altair? My first real “PC” was the VIC which of course was easy to talk my parents into thanks to not only the price but being plugged by The Shat, i mean if its good enough for Kirk right?
Frankly I never thought Tramiel got the credit he deserved. before old Jack and Commodore computers were strictly the toys for the rich, common folks really couldn’t afford them. it was Tramiel that really gave us the first computer that anybody could afford and thanks to that computers suddenly sprung up everywhere, there were clubs in even the small towns, stores everywhere had the VIC and mags popped up overnight giving us all tons of programs to type in and try.
RIP computer man, thanks to you a lifetime love of computers was born in many and you in no small part paved the way to computers being as common as TVs.
a hrf=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64“
To :
a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64“
(and you may delete this post…)
Jack Tramiel crossed over from Commodore to Atari very shortly after my father thought we should have a computer and we bought an Atari 800XL. We were shocked, first to hear that we had bought from a bankrupt company, and then at how Tramiel slashed the prices. It was a rough introduction to how the computer industry worked, and how my coming years would be. But when he introduced the Atari ST line, I thought it was the most beautiful looking computer ever made, and the corresponding XE line only slightly less so. I still do, so thanks for that, and for keeping Atari alive another decade.
So sad yet its inevitable that those people who we idolized during our childhood are starting to die of old age.
Ahh the old Commodore vs Atari wars in the early 80’s. It was quite something when Tramiel “switched sides” in 1984.
Personally this makes me more sad than when Steve Jobs passed away, since in my case Tramiel/Commodore molded my childhood fascination with computers (via the PET’s and my first computer the VIC-20), which ultimately lead to my career in the computer science field.
However I suppose we will not hear much in the mainstream media even though Jack and Commodore helped make the home computer affordable to most people. Since Commodore went bankrupt in ’94 history gets written by those that remain.
Isn’t it a bit of paradox, that Commodore’s “flagship” has been designed by former Atari employees (associates?) – I mean Jay Miner’s team – and Atari’s “flagship” (ST) has been built by the people (when left Commodore along with Tramiel), that made C-64?
Edited 2012-04-09 21:40 UTC
Yeah, I always told that story.
I was actually irritated by that. I didn’t know until years later that Jay Miner had created both the Atari 8-bit Line and the Amiga Line.
Looking back at it, it was obvious though. I had an Atari 800XL, which I absolutely loved. So many things on that looked fantastic, and I recall my friend having so many issues with his Commodore 64 (remember the speed load cartridge you absolutely HAD to have?)
Well, when it came time for the 16bit systems to come out, I naturally followed the Atari brand, and he followed the Amiga brand. The Amigas were particularly better than the Atari ST in Graphics and Sound. I had managed though to get the Atari Mega STe, which had comparable palette and stereo sound. Alas (yeah, I had to use that word, it’s too unused), most software didn’t support the extended features of the STe, not to mention some weird compatibility issues.
Now I still have my Mega STe, plus an Atari TT030. But I had to add to my collection an Amiga A4000D, which I’ve upgraded with PCI and a Radeon + Network card.
Even though it still has the stock CPU, it seems faster than my Core 2 Quad in some ways.
Hats off to you Jack Tramiel, for helping the computer industry along.
Seems Atari only really went down hill after the ownership was passed onto Sam Tramiel.
I don’t know if “idolized” is really the correct word when it comes to Jack Tramiel. Chuck Peddle and Jay Miner, sure, but Jack? Jack was one mean businessman, but he made plenty of mistakes (backwards compatibility issues being the biggest).
That’s not to say I don’t think Jack was a great man who did a hell of a job with Commodore Business Machines and Atari, but I do believe that if he’d only listened to his engineers a little better, Jack Tramiel could’ve given Steve Jobs a run for his money!
That is very true. But, I think it is today we idolize the engineers. In 1982 as a early teen I do not remember us knowing of the engineers (remember there was no internet or wikipedia available to us). Most news we heard (through magazines presumably) would always mention Jack Tramiel, or perhaps the name of the marketing person at Commodore that was quoted.
It wasn’t until the C128 and Amiga with the easter eggs and signatures in plastic that we learned about those engineers that made it all possible.
Of course now we realize the full story through the internet and great books like “On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore”.
That book was so depressing. All the leverage Commodore had and then Gould & Ali killed it with moronic decisions. Sad. The industry benefited from the competition.
Now 95% of all computers are PC/Windows and the only thing happening between major windows upgrades is that the gayness level increases by 30%.
Now that made me laugh. I guess that means you tried windows 8, huh?
My first machine was Commodore VC-20 (end of August 1984). It had entire 3,5 KB of RAM…
Yes, VC-20 – not VIC-20 – since it was german version, advertised as “Volkscomputer” (anyone remember that too?).
I have working VC-20 in the attic.
It wasn’t called the VIC in Germany, because it sounded too much like a rude word. So they dropped the letter ‘i’ and ‘VC’ make a lot of people think about VW (Volkswagen).
So it wasn’t actually planned, but it did help sell them.
I have a Atari 600XL and a 800XL with boatloads of hardware add-ons, Also an Amiga A1200 with 030 accelerator/expansions and such. I still use all of them even now and they all work flawlessly like they did when they left the factory. They knew how to make em back then!
This is is sad news indeed. RIP Jack, may you find the golden keyboard of eternity.
I understand. I have a PET 2001 N32 (With the Skyles Electric works V4 Basic chip), a CBM 8032, A 2040 disk drive (software upgraded to 4040), a 1541, a 1581, a printer (forgot the number) and even a 128. Most of it works. The 8032 and 2040 have some RAM chip problems and don’t recognize all of their memory, but all still power up. I have pictures of my 7 year old playing on the PET. It is so cool.
RIP Jack.
I sadly I don’t have a PET, they look so cool.
I have a VC-20, a couple of C64s (breadbox and C-model), a C128 and a bunch of Amiga computers.
My original C64 died, I think the fuse is blown. I still have it though.
Recently I played Wizard of Wor with my son, which was a very special moment for me. I used to play with my big brother, but he died a few years ago.
I got hold of this cartridge that allows you to insert a SD card. On the card you can put games, which you can load directly, or .D64 images which you can write to a real disk.
For me the 80’s was a magical time, mostly due to the C64.
Don’t even get me started on how great I loved and respected the Commodore computer line! I cut my teeth in middle school on a Commodore 64. After that, I upgraded to a Commodore 128D in High school. In college, I had a Commodore 500+ and a Commodore 2000 before Commodore went bust in the early 90s. To this day, I contend that Commodore’s computing technology was superior in every way shape and form to anything available at that time from Wintel or Apple. Jack Tramiel was truly a visionary and I am saddened by his loss.
Togheter with Tandy, I learn programming with a Commodore 64.
I learn assembler with those, in high school, and it was more easy that the one that came with Intel processors. And the “sprites”, making easy to develop own games.
Its make me weird, remember, that most of my coworkers, even my same age, learn to program in windows, not even D.O.S., while some of us, learn in high school, when there wasn’t D.O.S.
As I read, in a related web article, Its sad we know more about Jobs or Gates than this guy.
Edited 2012-04-10 01:08 UTC
He valued what privacy he could get. He was perfectly comfortable with the world knowing less about him than about Jobs and Gates.
That’s because the true innovators were all quiet types that loved to tinker. Generally socially awkward as well.
Jobs and Gates weren’t really the innovators that people like Wozniak, Jay Miner were (well are in Woz’s case). They were all about the money. Cha-Ching!
“That’s because the true innovators were all quiet types that loved to tinker. Generally socially awkward as well.
Jobs and Gates weren’t really the innovators that people like Wozniak, Jay Miner were (well are in Woz’s case). They were all about the money. Cha-Ching!”
This brings up a short piece I saw on morning TV the other day on the topic of people who are introvert and those who are extrovert.
I found it quite informative piece, they were just trying to sell a book by the same time, but all the same it soon for me, put things into perspective.
The Geeks (the introverts) aka the innovators often don’t get as much recognition as they should- often its years later they get the recognition they deserve.
I am sure this is the same for all industries.
Surely history is full of introverts that changed history, but the extroverts took all the recognition and glory.
Jack Tramiel was a business man, period. Which makes him more more like either Jobs or Gates.
Yes, he led two of the companies which produced some of the computers some of us cherished in our kid years, but that is a far from being a technological “innovator.”
Still, a sad day for his family. RIP.
at Commodore 64 – 25th Anniversary Celebration Steve Wozniak noted that the Apple II was cheaper to build than the PET 2001 and sold for three times the price. “We wanted to build a company that would be around for awhile,” he poked Jack.
Jack Tramiel make computers affordable to millions of people.
So he followed a business model of low margin/high volume. That proves my point that he was a business man.
The “innovators” are the guys working on the design of the machines, not the one making bank off them.
Edited 2012-04-11 19:11 UTC
I guess you could say he was a business innovator in selling home computers.
call him as you like but he was major person that made personal computer revolution possible and widespread
and innovator was Jack’s chef engineer Shiraz Shivji. He, with 5 other engineers, design ST in 6 months: ST had 10% faster CPU, 30% bigger resolution, DMA 10Mbit/s port, 4 x more memory and cost 2.5 LESS than original Mac which was designed for 3-4 years… at the end, ST could run Mac software, just faster and in bigger resolution
To be fair, there were definitively more than 5 people involved in the design of the ST
I have my own http://mindplusplus.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/rest-in-peace-jack-tra… about him.
To read :
http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=995
http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=1000
http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=1383
Kochise
Thank you.
If you were in to Commodore this should make a very interesting site:
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/
;( ;( ;(
“For the masses and not the classes” & “Power without price”
Thank you Jack for everything!
Jack Tramiel Interview (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NImJFV3wH88#t=1m05s
one and half hour with J. Tramiel: Commodore 64 – 25th Anniversary Celebration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk (abolutly MUST SEE)
Jack Tramiel from 1985.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uK7cnsE-4Q
…and new Atari with Jack at helm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqSm5sbg3Wk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQCVwduR5_U
…and one GREAT C64 ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSgNRng7e50
“Changed my life, and gave me a sanctuary against
the MS/Gates flood of unexciting blandness… ”
@Thom please correct phrase: “…man behind Atari…” – somebody could ask himself: “and where is Nolan Bushnell?” Jack T. was man behind Atari Corp. from 1984.; and until then, he tried to “destroy” very same Atari
(take a look at interview: Commodore 64 – 25th Anniversary Celebration)
Was a sarcasm…
Kochise
Forget about the amiga.
The first amiga, A1000 requires kickstart-disks and was an annoyance.
Later they fixed some of the obscurities, and released A500. The amiga 500 is the sole reason for the amigas good reputation.
We can clearly see that they were lucky.
Later models were not that popular, and some flopped totally.
In the A4000, their last top model, they still had the 8bit sound of the A1000, while the rest of computing world had moved to 16bit. So don`t say they wasn`t greedy in whatever department.
Commodore is often critizised for clowing around with their business, but clearly they clowned around with the engineering aswell.
So their two sucesses was c64 and a500. The rest was flops (?).
C`mon people, it`s just a PC. If they indeed were so good, they could repeat the success on modern hardware, and new OS, but they don`t.
Anyway, if you want to know why people liked these vintage machines, config a linux kernel for low latency. (standard kernel will do). And it will feel very much like many of those wellprogrammed assemblycoded apps/demos/games, that were responsive on that hardware.
So there is absolutely no reason to be stuck in the past.
Btw, does anyone know if the story that “someone just came in and did “component X” in the OS, and left again” and that component X is a vital part of the amigas responsiveness, is true? So the “innovation” seems rather random aswell.
RIP though still, on a human level.
Edited 2012-04-12 15:08 UTC
…and how exactly Jack Tramiel is related to Amiga ?
I don`t know how involved he was.
PS: SNES audio chip.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_S-SMP
The S-DSP is capable of producing and mixing 8 simultaneous voices at any relevant pitch and volume in 16-bit stereo at a sample rate of 32 kHz. It has support for voice panning, ADSR envelope control, echo with filtering (via a programmable 8-tap FIR), and using noise as sound source (useful for certain sound effects such as wind). S-DSP sound samples are stored in RAM in compressed (BRR) format. Communications between the S-SMP and the S-DSP are carried out via memory-mapped I/O.
Snes Released 21. november 1990.
Amiga 4000, released 1992. Same old faggot 8bit 4chan chip. TWO YEARS LATER. And the Amiga 4000 was exceedingly expensive..
I really wont like to turn this thread in technical discussion but in short:
Jack T. has nothing with Amiga. Regarding sound, Atari Corp. produce Atari Falcon030 computer in 1992. that could do 16bit, 44.1KHz 16 channel harddisc audio recording; plus it could do realtime effects thanx to built in DSP.
Something that PC will do in years to come…
Thanx to DSP Falcon could also play MP3 in full quality (something that require at least 486 DX4/100MHz that come out in years…).
@tylerdurden according to many resources on internet, Shiraz have six engineers that design complete ST hardware. There was also software group of ~15 people that port (and finished) DRI GEM OS.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n1/threeyearsofst.html
Yes I remember some guys around here had the falcon. It was little known though. But yes it had 16bit sound, as I said, everyone had moved to 16 bit then. Soundblaster 16 was also available for PC, although probably mostly usable in dos. Windows had many years, probably until XP, before it was fully usable with multimedia.
They still have that onebutton joystick leetness?
Combine that with tac-2 that inflicts physical pain each time you push the button, and you have the greatest gaming experience.
http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/09/…
Edited 2012-04-13 14:55 UTC
One could point out a lot of stuff that is clearly not innovation. Even on the c64, one button was retarded.
And on OS`s, Ken Sakamura made this in 1984 (!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRON_Project
The falcon sounded nice. I should have bought that instead of my h/w sampler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGn3XcITpSQ&feature=youtu.be
Was it really that noisy? Sounds like monitor hum there among other things.
They should have implemented DSP to lessen it, limiter etc, or maybe balanced outs.
Still would have been cooler than a lot of h/w at the time, and the file could have been written digitally.
No, Falcon is not noisy at all. It has CD quality input/output – musician always removed default bass booster from audio output.
Beside 16 channel digital audio recording, Falcon could be used as softsynth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmClVtfz3iU
this is Ace Tracker (no samples involved).