Leonardo Padial, an MSX hardware legend, has sadly passed away

Last week we received the sad news of Leonardo Padial Ortiz's death, for many of us an MSX legend well-known for his varied and innovative hardware developments that allowed us to squeeze our MSX computers for decades.

Since the beginning of the '90s, when the MSX had practically no commercial support outside of Japan, Leonardo began his journey with the first developments. It is amazing the variety of devices that his mind was able to engineer and later develop himself. From a multitude of different memory expansions, EPROM programmer, slot expanders, SD/MMC interface, video & audio boards, FDD interface, EMSX system, the well-known PC keyboard interface to his most ambitious project, the Z380 32 bits CPU board. Without a doubt the Padial Hardware seal will always be part of that select group of developers without whom the MSX standard would probably not be alive or with such strength in the XXI century.

We lost a maestro, a great person but he will always be there with us whenever we connect any of his great devices to our beloved MSX computers. We will miss him, his figure and legacy will remain linked to the MSX standard and its community forever. Wherever you are, thank you for your support always Leonardo!

The MSX Resource Center wishes to extend its sincere condolences to his family.

Relevant link: forum topic, message from his son
Relevant link: Padial Hardware website