Jay Miner
Talkie Toaster
magazine, if he was really dead they should have printed an obituary 'coz
he's the undisputed father of the Amiga. At the time of the last
interview with him he was running some kind of BBS from his home.
If he's truly dead, the computer and video games community will have lost
another great visionary. I would give my condolances to his family.
If this is true, then the computer community has become more dull and
boring, with cold and logical managers taking over the place of
passionate and visionary people.
If anyone has any details about his death, could they please send me them
at mar...@hacktic.nl? Thank you! But I still hope it isn't true!
C'ya,
Marty
Jeff M Lodoen
: Does anyone have any more information on Jay miner. Apparently, he
: was a prominent figure in some of the earlier computers and video game
: systems of the early eighties. But besides the fact that he passed away
: recently, that is about all that I know. Any information as to who he
: was and some of the things that he did would be greatly appreciated.
:
:
: Jim deVos
I'm sure I wont be the first or last to say that he contributed
to computing in many ways.
He was instrumental in the design of the Atari 2600 VCS, one
of the most extensible of the early video games. Capable of many
things beyond it's specs. (circa 1977)
He was a major part of the design of the Atari 400 and 800 systems,
very advanced for their time. (1979)
And of course the Amiga, but that's best explained by someone else.
I read he became involved in medical imaging in the last few
years.
Jim Devos
was a prominent figure in some of the earlier computers and video game
systems of the early eighties. But besides the fact that he passed away
recently, that is about all that I know. Any information as to who he
was and some of the things that he did would be greatly appreciated.
Jim deVos
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geoffo...@delphi.com
>Is Jay Miner DEAD??? I don't remember reading about this in any Amiga
>magazine, if he was really dead they should have printed an obituary 'coz
>he's the undisputed father of the Amiga. At the time of the last
>interview with him he was running some kind of BBS from his home.
"Jay 'Padre' Miner, better known as the Father of the Amiga [ among other
things-GO], passed away at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California
on June 20, 1994, after a long period of failing health. Touching memories
from Amiga users have flooded the online networks, each relating a personal
tribute to this humorous, soft-spoken genius.
"Who can forget the risk-taker who abandoned prosperous Atari development
in 1982 to start a small computer company that later became the Amiga Corp-
oration? Miner served not only as the inspirational leader for the original
Amiga ram (which included RJ Mical and Dale Luck), but also as the resident
watchdog for "Project Amiga". Miner fought to ensure that the original Amiga
[the 1000-GO] shipped with 512k instead of the 256k which Commodore insisted
upon, and that the archetecture moved graphics fast-so fast that the rest of
the industry is still playing catch-up.
"His legendary contribution to the personal-computing industry is not his
only legacy. Miner is also credited with improving the lives of millions
with his revolutionary work in the development of microchips for pacemakers.
"Until health problems interfered with his travel plans, Miner made many
personal appearances at trade shows, sharing with numerous Amiga owners the
same enthusiasm and commitment that fueled the birth of the platform.
"A message that appeared in the Amiga area on GEnie from longtime Amiga
fixture Peggy Herrington summarizes it all quite well: "Adios, Jay. We'll
never forget you-or your Amiga.'"
There you have it!
*Geoff!*
Prof. Feedlebom
: If he's truly dead, the computer and video games community will have lost
: If anyone has any details about his death, could they please send me them
: at mar...@hacktic.nl? Thank you! But I still hope it isn't true!
Unfortunately, it is true. Jay Miner has been in ill health for some time.
The following obituary is from a Northern California newspaper, and was posted
to comp.sys.amiga.misc.
Subject: Jay Miner newspaper obit. :(
Message-ID: <118...@cup.portal.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 94 15:04:53 PDT
Distribution: world
Obituary from the San Jose Mercury News 07/22/94
by Mack Lundstrom
Mercury News Staff Writer
=======================================================
Born: May 31, 1932, Prescott, Ariz.
Died: June 20, 1994, Mountain View, Calif.
Survived by: Wife, Caroline Miner of Mountain View;
nieces, Linda Heisig of Holt, Calif.,
Robin Beers of San Diego, Calif.
Services: Memorial at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Palo
Alto Unitarian Universalist Church,
505 E. Charleston Road.
Memorial: Donations may be made to a charity of choice.
=======================================================
When the admirers of Jay Miner's contributions to invention and design
in computer technology gather Saturday to say goodbye to him, some will
remember Mitchy, too.
The little cockapoo had her own nameplate right below "J.G. Miner" on
the door to his office in the Atari headquarters in Los Gatos. It was
back when Atari founder Nolan Bushnell's game of Pong was growing from
coin operation to home computer. Mitchy's photo-ID badge was clipped
to her collar as she trotted alongside her master into the building.
From the couch in his office, she viewed the designer at work.
Mitchy saw plenty in the years Jay Glenn Miner helped companies put
metal-oxide semiconductors to good use before he died of complications
related to kidney failure at the age 62 on June 20 in a Mountain View
hospital.
"He was always designing," said his longtime colleague and friend,
Harold M. Lee, who hired Mr. Miner at Atari in the middle 1970s. "He
never stopped designing."
He designed some of the first digital voltmeters and calculators.
For Atari he developed the Video Computer system (VCS), which put its
games in millions of homes, and then he went to work on the design for
the Atari 400 and 800 computers. He put his touch on the chip that is
central to the Ventritex implantable cardiac defibrillator that can be
programmed externally.
But Mitchy was an observer, too, at Amiga Corp., the computer company
that Mr. Miner and David Morse co-founded and other observers view as
Mr. Miner's most notable achievement.
The Amiga computer, which in the early '80s produced color graphics
that only today are becoming commonplace in PCs, created a community
of avid adherents. It was Mr. Miner's dream to design a low-cost
machine that could run several programs simultaneously, handle video
and do it all in color. An Amiga did that for less than $1,300 (a
basic model sold for $750).
When Commodore acquired Amiga in 1984, the legion of Amiga loyalists
thought the world would beat a path to the better-mousetrap door. It
didn't happen. The Amiga languished.
Mr. Miner moved on to Ventritex, a Sunnyvale biotechnology company.
The defibrillator was his last project.
A native of Prescott, Ariz., he grew up in Southern California and
entered San Diego State University. It was Korean War time, and he
opted for the Coast Guard, which sent him to Groton, Conn., to
electronics school. At Groton, he also met Caroline Poplawski, whom
he married in 1952. After a three-year tour of duty, Mr. Miner
brought his bride to California and earned his electrical engineering
degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958.
For more than a decade he moved from company to company, many of
them start-ups.
Much of that time Jay Miner had lived with faulty kidneys and
dialysis, said his wife, Caroline. After Mr. Miner's sister, Joyce
Beers, gave him one of her kidneys in 1990, it gave him four more
years.
Her husband was a man of many, and varied, interests, said his
wife of more than 42 years: bonsai, model airplanes, square dancing,
camping and backpacking.
---
-Fedl