In memoriam, Darren Greenwald

shuttlepilot · 17 February 2020, 00:57

Recently, Commodore (and Scala) lost one of its true gentle giants. Darren Greenwald passed away in late January, far too soon at age 59, following cardiac complications.

Darren joined Commodore in June of 1990 and quickly became a vital member of the AmigaOS team. He excelled at complex problems and worked especially in the lower levels of the operating system including keyboard and printer drivers. He did a major rework of the Console driver for Release 2 including copy/paste support.

During the compatibility push (Releases 2.02 and 2.04) to make the new OS support lots of third-party titles that failed under Release 2, he made intricate fixes to the timer device that brought lots of games back to life, and made fixes to restore among many other titles SimCity and Tetris back to functionality.

He took on the ongoing development of the bitmap fonts and outline fonts projects, then implemented Japanese support, then pivoted to CD+G / Karaoke-CD support for the CDTV-CR, and making the credit card slot (PCMCIA) work on the Amiga 600, then still known as the A300. He also let the effort to squeeze the IDE and PCMCIA software into an already-full ROM, and to make sure that the A600 didn’t use more RAM on startup than the earlier Amiga 500.

He also worked on the CD32, including yet more software compatibility detective work, and championing the stability testing of the new ROM code.

After Commodore, he like several others joined Scala, where he worked on lots of challenging aspects of their digital signage software, including font support, network connections, data-broadcast and multicast support, Android and ChromeOS, and much else besides, including senior technical leadership positions.

He left behind his wife Cindy, his sister, and two adult children.

Darren Greenwald, 1996

This article first appeared on https://www.reddit.com/r/amiga/

DamienD · 17 February 2020, 01:25

Very sad news, RIP Darren

Hewitson · 17 February 2020, 01:38

To be perfectly honest, I'm not aware of Darren Greenwald or any of the work that he did for Commodore. Still very sad news though.

Rest In Peace Darren.

Tigerskunk · 17 February 2020, 07:01

Rest in peace, Darren...

saimon69 · 17 February 2020, 07:30

I did met him at CLASS last year, am so sorry he is no longer with us

yssing · 17 February 2020, 08:23

What a shame, 59 is way to young.

vulture · 17 February 2020, 08:55

R. I. P.

Pyromania · 17 February 2020, 09:10

So sorry to see him go, looking Amiga guys is always very sad.

R.I.P.

kamelito · 17 February 2020, 17:09

R.I.P Darren, 59 is too young.

17 February 2020, 00:57	#1
shuttlepilot Vampire 68080 Owner Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home Posts: 222	In memoriam, Darren Greenwald Recently, Commodore (and Scala) lost one of its true gentle giants. Darren Greenwald passed away in late January, far too soon at age 59, following cardiac complications. Darren joined Commodore in June of 1990 and quickly became a vital member of the AmigaOS team. He excelled at complex problems and worked especially in the lower levels of the operating system including keyboard and printer drivers. He did a major rework of the Console driver for Release 2 including copy/paste support. During the compatibility push (Releases 2.02 and 2.04) to make the new OS support lots of third-party titles that failed under Release 2, he made intricate fixes to the timer device that brought lots of games back to life, and made fixes to restore among many other titles SimCity and Tetris back to functionality. He took on the ongoing development of the bitmap fonts and outline fonts projects, then implemented Japanese support, then pivoted to CD+G / Karaoke-CD support for the CDTV-CR, and making the credit card slot (PCMCIA) work on the Amiga 600, then still known as the A300. He also let the effort to squeeze the IDE and PCMCIA software into an already-full ROM, and to make sure that the A600 didn’t use more RAM on startup than the earlier Amiga 500. He also worked on the CD32, including yet more software compatibility detective work, and championing the stability testing of the new ROM code. After Commodore, he like several others joined Scala, where he worked on lots of challenging aspects of their digital signage software, including font support, network connections, data-broadcast and multicast support, Android and ChromeOS, and much else besides, including senior technical leadership positions. He left behind his wife Cindy, his sister, and two adult children. Darren Greenwald, 1996 This article first appeared on https://www.reddit.com/r/amiga/

17 February 2020, 01:25	#2
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Very sad news, RIP Darren

17 February 2020, 01:38	#3
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	To be perfectly honest, I'm not aware of Darren Greenwald or any of the work that he did for Commodore. Still very sad news though. Rest In Peace Darren.

17 February 2020, 07:01	#4
Tigerskunk Inviyya Dude! Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: Amiga Island Posts: 2,774	Rest in peace, Darren...

17 February 2020, 07:30	#5
saimon69 J.M.D - Bedroom Musician Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: los angeles,ca Posts: 3,531	I did met him at CLASS last year, am so sorry he is no longer with us

17 February 2020, 08:23	#6
yssing Registered User Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Denmark Posts: 22	What a shame, 59 is way to young.

17 February 2020, 08:55	#7
vulture Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Athens , Greece Posts: 1,842	R. I. P.

17 February 2020, 09:10	#8
Pyromania Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 3,379	So sorry to see him go, looking Amiga guys is always very sad. R.I.P.

17 February 2020, 17:09	#9
kamelito Zone Friend Join Date: May 2006 Location: France Posts: 1,801	R.I.P Darren, 59 is too young.

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