Tom Lyon

On this episode of On the Metal, we interview Tom Lyon, Sun Microsystems
employee #8, network storage pioneer and systems software polymath. Join us
as Tom recounts losing bits in the hallway at Princeton, the peril
of software-refreshed DRAM, and how to write a token ring driver from scratch
in two weeks and still be mistaken for someone from sales. Along the way, Jess,
Bryan and Tom nerd out about first calculators, favorite editors, and hard tabs.

Show Notes

You can find Tom on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aka_pugs and find his blog at https://akapugs.blog/. You can learn more about DriveScale at https://drivescale.com/.

Tom brought us a present: an IBM 360-era "Ready" button!

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Williams tube (CRT-based memory): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube
• Mercury delay lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory
• Datapoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datapoint
• Datapoint: The Lost Story of the Texans who Invented the Personal Computer Revolution by Lamont Wood: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16214216-datapoint
• ARCNET: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARCNET
• AppleTalk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk
• Z8530 UART: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_SCC
• Apple LaserWriter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter
• DECnet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECnet
• X.25: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.25
• Tom's notes from the NFS offsite in 1983: https://twitter.com/aka_pugs/status/985941297327366144
• Automounter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automounter
• CAP theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem
• Sun's Network Disk (nd) protocol: https://github.com/senjan/ndd/blob/master/nd_pkt.h (if you find nd(4P) from the SunOS 3.x man pages, let us know!)
• The Internet Collapse of 1986: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_congestion#Congestive_collapse
• Larry Roberts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Roberts_(scientist)
• Telenet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenet
• Tandem Computers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_Computers
• Token ring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_ring
• Ipsilon Networks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipsilon_Networks
• FDDI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_Distributed_Data_Interface
• Crescendo Communications: https://books.google.com/books?id=PDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44
• CDC 3400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_3000_series
• Ones' Complement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ones%27_complement
• IBM 1130: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1130
• Olivetti Programma 101: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programma_101
• TI-83: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-83_series
• HP 48G: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_48_series
• HP-35: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-35
• ed(1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_(text_editor)
• IBM System/370: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/370
• APL\360: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)#APL%5C360
• IBM 2741 with APL keyboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_2741#/media/File:IBM2741.JPG
• VM/370: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM_(operating_system)
• Unibus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unibus
• Interdata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata
• Greg Chesson: https://grainger.illinois.edu/alumni/distinguished/7939
• Joe Ossanna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ossanna
• nroff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nroff
• IBM 1403: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1403
• Amdahl UTS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl_UTS
• IBM 3270 terminal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3270
• Dick Lyon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_F._Lyon
• MAXC, PARC's PDP-10 clone: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/parts/maxc-board/index.html
• Berkeley Computer Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Genie
• Bob Lyon: https://www.facebook.com/bob.lyon.98
• Optical mouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_mouse
• The Oxide garage Sun art work of mysterious origin (a Sun-3/160, perhaps?): https://oxide.computer/img/garage-sun.jpg
• Steve Kirsch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kirsch
• Dick Lyon's (color!) technical report on the optical mouse: http://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf
• Ipsilon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipsilon_Networks
• ATM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_transfer_mode
• Andy Bechtolsheim on "Death to ATM" (July 1996): https://web.archive.org/web/20001217105700/https://www.redherring.com/mag/issue33/atm.html
• Tom's original announcement of VFIO: https://lwn.net/Articles/391459/
• Open Source Firmware Conference: https://osfc.io/archive

What is On The Metal?

As a part of starting Oxide Computer Company, Bryan Cantrill and Jess Frazelle decided to also create the podcast that they always wanted. Joined frequently by their boss, Steve Tuck, Bryan and Jess interview incredible guests retelling stories of adventure at the hardware/software interface. It’s unapologetically technical and as Jess says, “the nerdiest podcast on the face of the planet” -- but if you're their kind of nerd, you'll find yourself hanging on every word!