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Microarch Club
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 1
Season 1
1: Philip Freidin
Philip Freidin joins to talk about developing a passion for electronics and computer architecture while growing up in Australia, getting started on the PDP-8, his grand plan to work on AMD bit-slice processors, and plenty more.
Philip on X: https://twitter.com/PhilipFreidin
Philip on X: https://twitter.com/PhilipFreidin
Philip’s Site: http://www.fliptronics.com/
Show Notes
- Welcome Philip Freidin (00:01:02)
- Growing up in Australia (00:03:25)
- Teletype Model 33 ASR (00:07:10)
- Kilocore Ticks (00:09:15)
- General Electric GE-235 (00:11:50)
- Learning Fortran and Algol (00:16:03)
- Peeling Back Abstractions (00:19:02)
- Working on Hospital Electronics (00:19:51)
- Making a Digital Clock at Age 14 (00:24:31)
- DEC PDP-8 (00:26:26)
- Why DEC Used the PDP Name (00:29:40)
- Glass Teletypes (00:31:01)
- Programming in FOCAL and Fortran (00:31:31)
- Linking and Loading with Paper Tape (00:33:27)
- DECtape (00:35:57)
- Designing a Floppy Disk Drive System for PDP-8 (00:37:01)
- PDP-8 OMNIBUS Backplane (00:37:38)
- Software Support for Floppy Disk Drive (00:39:42)
- OS/8 Operating System (00:40:26)
- DEC Manuals (00:43:53)
- The Onion Model for Abstraction (00:45:21)
- Understanding Computer Architecture (00:48:29)
- Moving to the PDP-11 (00:52:31)
- PDP-11/34 and Microcode (00:54:36)
- 74181 ALU Chip (00:54:49)
- DEC VAX 11/780 (00:55:29)
- 74182 Chip (00:57:55)
- Performance Optimization by Understanding Dependencies (01:00:01)
- DSP and FPGAs (01:01:06)
- FIR Filter (01:05:12)
- TMS320 (01:06:16)
- Tradeoffs Between DSP Chips and FPGAs (01:11:46)
- Applications of FIR Filters (01:13:38)
- FPGAs in Communication Systems (01:15:28)
- Optimization Starts with Algorithms (01:16:20)
- Misuse of Floating Point (01:16:55)
- Joining AMD (01:18:57)
- Bit Slice (01:19:53)
- Intel 3002 (01:20:52)
- MMI 6701 (01:21:00)
- AMD Am2901 (01:22:16)
- Data General Eclipse MV/8000 (01:23:24)
- Mini Supercomputers (01:24:13)
- Designing first chip at age 12 (01:25:11)
- RS Latch (01:28:03)
- 74LS279 (01:28:39)
- Learning about Bit Slice (01:30:00)
- R&D Electronics (01:30:53)
- Internal and External Applications Engineers (01:32:45)
- Becoming Australia’s First Field Applications Engineer (01:36:11)
- MMI Programmable Array Logic (PAL) (01:37:08)
- Meeting the Bit Slice Designers (01:38:03)
- S-100 Bus (01:39:01)
- Teaching at University (01:39:50)
- Sending Resume to AMD (01:42:27)
- AMD Interview (01:43:16)
- Moving to the U.S. (01:45:40)
- AMD’s Secret RISC CPU (01:46:19)
- Am29000 (01:50:19)
- Why RISC over CISC? (01:51:38)
- Memory is free (01:52:40)
- Compiler Optimizations (01:56:36)
- Mapping Instructions to Opcodes (02:00:15)
- RISC-V and Fixed-Position Operands (02:01:16)
- CISC Became RISC (02:03:47)
- Register Windows on Am29000 (02:05:22)
- Texas Instruments TMS9900 (02:07:04)
- Register Window Spill (02:11:14)
- Alternative to Register Windows (02:14:27)
- SPARC and Why We Don’t Use Register Windows Today (02:16:02)
- Advice for Finding Success in an Organization (02:20:07)
- Mechanisms not Policies (02:30:26)
More: https://microarch.club/episodes/1
Chapters
- Welcome Philip Freidin
- Growing up in Australia
- Teletype Model 33 ASR
- Kilocore Ticks
- General Electric GE-235
- Learning Fortran and Algol
- Peeling Back Abstractions
- Working on Hospital Electronics
- Making a Digital Clock at Age 14
- DEC PDP-8
- Why DEC Used the PDP Name
- Glass Teletypes
- Programming in FOCAL and Fortran
- Linking and Loading with Paper Tape
- DECtape
- Designing a Floppy Disk Drive System for PDP-8
- PDP-8 OMNIBUS Backplane
- Software Support for Floppy Disk Drive
- OS/8 Operating System
- DEC Manuals (https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/)
- The Onion Model for Abstraction
- Understanding Computer Architecture
- Moving to the PDP-11
- PDP-11/34 and Microcode
- 74181 ALU Chip
- DEC VAX 11/780
- 74182 Chip
- Performance Optimization by Understanding Dependencies
- DSP and FPGAs
- FIR Filter
- TMS320
- Tradeoffs Between DSP Chips and FPGAs
- Applications of FIR Filters
- FPGAs in Communication Systems
- Optimization Starts with Algorithms
- Misuse of Floating Point
- Joining AMD
- Bit Slice
- Intel 3002
- MMI 6701
- AMD Am2901
- Data General Eclipse MV/8000
- Mini Supercomputers
- Designing first chip at age 12
- RS Latch
- 74LS279
- Learning about Bit Slice
- R&D Electronics
- Internal and External Applications Engineers
- Becoming Australia's First Field Applications Engineer
- MMI Programmable Array Logic (PAL)
- Meeting the Bit Slice Designers
- S-100 Bus
- Teaching at University
- Sending Resume to AMD
- AMD Interview
- Moving to the U.S.
- AMD's Secret RISC CPU
- Am29000
- Why RISC over CISC?
- Memory is free
- Compiler Optimizations
- Mapping Instructions to Opcodes
- RISC-V and Fixed-Position Operands
- CISC Became RISC
- Register Windows on Am29000
- Texas Instruments TMS9900
- Register Window Spill
- Alternative to Register Windows
- SPARC and Why We Don't Use Register Windows Today
- Advice for Finding Success in an Organization
- Mechanisms not Policies