Goodbye Jerry Lawson, Creator of the Fairchild game system

[talonhunter]

(WIRED) -- Gerald "Jerry" Lawson, creator of the first cartridge-based videogame console, died Saturday morning in a Mountain View, California, hospital, WIRED.com has learned. Lawson was 70.
As an engineer at Fairchild Semiconductor, Lawson designed the electronics of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System, later renamed the Channel F, in 1976.
Predating the release of Atari's Video Computer System by a year, the Channel F was the first videogame machine that used interchangeable game cartridges, which Fairchild sold separately.
Previous game machines like Atari's "Pong" and the Magnavox Odyssey had all their games built into the hardware. Lawson's pioneering design set the standard for the game consoles of today.