Electronic engineer who designed Paula, the Amiga custom chip responsible for sampled audio, floppy control, serial communications and other input/output functions.
| Biographical Information | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Hardware Designer, Hardware Engineer, Sound Engineer |
Glenn Keller is an electronic engineer who designed Paula, one of the three principal custom chips in the original Amiga chipset. He joined the Amiga project after studying at the University of Edinburgh and seeking engineering work in California.
Working under Jay Miner, Keller combined several important functions into Paula. The chip provided four-channel sampled digital audio, controlled floppy-disk data transfer, handled serial communications and managed part of the joystick and mouse interface. Its audio system gave the Amiga a recognisable sound and made sophisticated music and effects possible without a separate synthesizer chip.
Paula remained compatible across much of the classic Amiga range, from the Amiga 1000 through later desktop and low-cost models. Keller’s design therefore became one of the longest-lived parts of the original architecture and a central element of the computer’s reputation for multimedia.
Continued work on Amiga custom-chip technology after the Commodore acquisition.
Designed the Paula custom chip for audio, floppy control and peripheral input/output.
Designed Paula, including audio, floppy, serial and input/output functions.
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