| Cassidy: Commodore 64 pioneer Jack Tramiel lived Silicon Valley's story In the death of Jack Tramiel, the man behind the Commodore 64 computer, it's not that hard to see the life of Silicon Valley. Y. Hooker' guy. But the ad was not trotting out celebrity for celebrity's sake. Though Tramiel skewered Atari at the time, he would go on to buy the company in 1984. "He really has provided a lesson to everybody of what a traditional entrepreneur was -- independent, absolutely fearless," Malone says. And though his high-tech fame faded and he left some competitors bruised, it is inevitable that he will be remembered, and warmly, for the computers he put into people's hands. The room was full. Kirk. Yes, in a sense Tramiel launched William Shatner's alternate career as a quirky celebrity pitchman. "Boy, he was a tough nut," says David Laws, a curator at the Computer History Museum and a guy who once worked for a Commodore supplier. Upstart startups maneuver to get out in front of the old guard, and sometimes overtake them at their own game. But those who started the now-faded giants have nothing to apologize for. But Tramiel, who lived in Monte Sereno, had a soft side, as well, says his son Leonard, who remembers "an incredibly strong people person. Born in Poland, Tramiel survived the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. "It was very, very important to him that people knew the story and that they would, to use that tired phrase, never forget," Leonard Tramiel said. Tramiel eventually moved to the United States, where he enlisted in the Army. From there he embarked on the classic American dream journey. Tandem, SGI, Sun Microsystems. Tramiel followed that in 1980 with the VIC-20, which was less than $300 and which pioneered another Silicon Valley practice: the celebrity endorser. In the valley, legacy is not always about building companies to last. It's the way it goes here, isn't it? There was Fairchild and then there wasn't. Tramiel, who died at 84 at Stanford Hospital on Sunday, was a Silicon Valley A-lister in the early personal computing days. The 64, which ranks as one of the best-selling personal computer models ever, still induces nostalgic rhapsody in its legion of onetime owners. "He helped pioneer the game industry and the personal computer industry, but at a certain point the world blew past him," says author and valley historian Michael S. "It came down to the big battle of who was going to have the industry standard. His Commodore computers -- as well as the 64 there was the VIC-20 and the PET -- helped open a whole new digital world to enthusiasts beyond the hobbyists who could build their own machines. But by the time of his death, Tramiel, the founder of Commodore with a granite-hard nose for business, had faded from the valley scene and even valley lore. "He tried to stuff the maximum amount of power into the least expensive package and then marketed the hell out of it," Malone tells me. Cassidy: Commodore 64 pioneer Jack Tramiel lived Silicon Valley's story |
Friday, 13 April 2012
Cassidy: Commodore 64 pioneer Jack Tramiel lived Silicon Valley's story
