Jay Miner is famously known as the "Father of the Amiga", the 16-bit computer system launched in the mid-1980s. After a period working as an engineer at Atari, Miner left when his proposal to develop a new console based on Motorola's 68000 line of microprocessors was turned down.
He moved to semiconductor designer and manufacturer Xymos. Here he was seconded to work as chip designer for the company's start-up game developer Hi-Toro where former Atari colleague Larry Kaplan was the software designer. When Kaplan left, Miner was invited to join the company, still carrying the dream of a 68000-based games machine. When this was proposed to the investors, they threatened to withdraw funding and instead back an ice-cream company. Eventually they opted for a console over ice-cream, and Hi-Toro created a new department for console development while continuing to produce games for the Atari system.
In late 1982 Hi-Toro was renamed Amiga, after investors decided they didn't like the company's name.
Miner continued developing the new console, codenamed Lorraine, and assembled a team of engineers to work on the system's custom chipset, codenamed Agnus, Daphne, Portia. However, the burden of R&D was draining the company's funds. An investment offer came from an unlikely quarter; Miner's old employer, and the company that knocked back the original proposal of the console, Atari. However, the licence agreement came with less than favourable terms and Amiga deliberated, at which point Atari's arch-rival Commodore made a successful bid to acquire the entire Amiga company outright.
The first Amiga system, the Amiga 1000, was launched in 1985 using the OCS chipset that Miner presided over. Development of the Commodore Amiga systems continued at the company's facility at Los Gatos. Over time, however, Commodore transferred development away from the original Amiga team, and the Los Gatos facility was closed.
Miner continued to work with Commodore as a consultant on the Amiga until the company's spectacular collapse and bankruptcy in April 1994. Almost as though it were a reflection of how inextricably his name and indeed his life had become synonymous with the Amiga, Jay died in the following weeks due to renal failure.
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