Shiraz Shivji

 ( 1947 Births ) 

Shiraz Shivji (born 1947 in what is now known as Tanzania) was the primary designer of the Atari ST computer for Atari Corporation, which was developed in five months and released in 1985, and one of the engineers who developed the Commodore 64.

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Biography Shiraz Shivji, born 1947 in what is now Tanzania, was of Indian Ismaili heritage.

Michael S. Tomczyk (1984). 9780942386752, Greensboro, N.C. : Compute! Publications. . ISBN 9780942386752

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Commodore Shivji began work at Silicon Valley, and found work at Commodore International, where he was one of the engineers that helped build the Commodore 64. By 1984, he had been promoted to being the director of engineering at Commodore.

9781908222220, Imagine Publishing. . ISBN 9781908222220

Jamie Lendino (2019). 9781732355217, Steel Gear Press. . ISBN 9781732355217

In 1984, Shivji was involved in a scandal related to his work on the Commodore 900. He was one of three systems engineers on the project since its inception in 1983.

Brian Bagnall (2026). 9780973864908, Variant Press. . ISBN 9780973864908

He was sued by Commodore in mid-July 1984 for disclosing confidential research information connected to this project and Disk storage design plans as he was beginning to transfer to Atari Corporation with Jack Tramiel. He was acquitted of all charges in court alongside several other engineers.

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Atari Corporation

When Jack Tramiel took over Atari in 1984, with a number of Commodore engineers, the company was in bad shape, and Shivji's proposed cheap, powerful home computer, codenamed 'Rock Bottom Price,' was seen as a solution to financial woes. While working for the newly founded Atari Corporation, Shivji was the primary designer of the Atari ST computer, among other projects.

Shivji became Atari's Vice President of Research and Development, and led a team of six engineers who designed the Atari 520ST computer. This work was completed in five months (July to December 1984).

Shivji later led the design of the Atari TT before leaving Atari in 1990.

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Post-Atari

Kamran Elahian recruited Shivji for his 1989 startup company, Momenta. While there, Shivji designed the Momenta Pen Computer, an early Pen computing and one of the first full sized Tablet computer.

Shivji received seven Patent between the years of 2000 and 2007.

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External links

• Father of the ST
• A tribute to the ST
• List of patents filed

Categories: 1947 Births, 20th-century American Engineers, 20th-century Indian Engineers, Alumni Of The University Of Southampton, American Electrical Engineers, Atari People, Commodore People, Indian Ismailis, American Ismailis, Tanzanian Ismailis, Indian Electrical Engineers, Indian Emigrants To The United States, Living People, Stanford University Alumni, Tanzanian Emigrants To The United States, Tanzanian Engineers, Tanzanian People Of Indian Descent

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