John Shirreff

John Shirreff is a British circuit and systems designer who created the architecture of the Camputers Lynx. Originally trained as an architect, he developed an interest in electronics through experimental music and moved into commercial electronic design.

Shirreff joined GW Design Services as it began considering a computer of its own. In 1982 Dick Greenwood asked him to design the new system. Shirreff developed the Lynx architecture around the Zilog Z80A processor, using bank-switched memory and separate colour planes to provide graphics capabilities that stood out from many contemporary British home computers.
He worked closely with software developer Davis Jansons while the prototype was built and debugged during 1982. The resulting Lynx reached the market in 48K, 96K and later 128K forms. Although complex and commercially short-lived, its design remains an unusual example of ambitious British microcomputer engineering.