Commodore founder Jack Tramiel dies, aged 83

[dutchman]

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel has died at the age of 83.



Tramiel was born in Poland in 1928 and survived his family's imprisonment at Auschwitz and a German labour camp, where he was rescued in April 1985.

He then emigrated to the United States, where he joined the army and learned to repair typewriters.

In 1953, he founded Commodore Portable Typewriter, which grew over the years to also sell adding machines, digital calculators and home computers. In 1982, it released the Commodore 64, which dominated the home computer market with a wide array of games.

Leaving Commodore in 1984, Tramiel founded Tramel Technology, which then purchased Atari's consumer division and adopted the Atari name. With the new Atari, Tramiel oversaw the release of the Atari 7800, Atari 2600jr and Atari Lynx, up through the 64-bit Jaguar and Jaguar CD.

Tramiel was one of the leading innovators in the business of home computers and video game consoles, and their acceptance by a mass market.

At the time of the Commodore 64's release, he became famous for the phrase: "We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes."