1: Philip Freidin

Date: 2024-02-14

Duration: 02:32:39

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’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)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_33
Kilocore Ticks (00:09:15)
General Electric GE-235 (00:11:50)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE-200_series
- https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/178/720
Learning Fortran and Algol (00:16:03)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALGOL
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)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-8
Why DEC Used the PDP Name (00:29:40)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_Data_Processor
Glass Teletypes (00:31:01)
Programming in FOCAL and Fortran (00:31:31)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(programming_language)
Linking and Loading with Paper Tape (00:33:27)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape
DECtape (00:35:57)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECtape
Designing a Floppy Disk Drive System for PDP-8 (00:37:01)
PDP-8 OMNIBUS Backplane (00:37:38)
- https://gunkies.org/wiki/OMNIBUS
Software Support for Floppy Disk Drive (00:39:42)
OS/8 Operating System (00:40:26)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/8
DEC Manuals (00:43:53)
- https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/
The Onion Model for Abstraction (00:45:21)
Understanding Computer Architecture (00:48:29)
Moving to the PDP-11 (00:52:31)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11
PDP-11/34 and Microcode (00:54:36)
- https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/34
74181 ALU Chip (00:54:49)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/74181
DEC VAX 11/780 (00:55:29)
- https://gunkies.org/wiki/VAX-11/780
74182 Chip (00:57:55)
- https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn54s182.pdf
Performance Optimization by Understanding Dependencies (01:00:01)
DSP and FPGAs (01:01:06)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing
FIR Filter (01:05:12)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_impulse_response
TMS320 (01:06:16)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS320
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)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_unit
Joining AMD (01:18:57)
Bit Slice (01:19:53)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_slicing
Intel 3002 (01:20:52)
- https://www.cpu-zone.com/3002/intel3002.pdf
MMI 6701 (01:21:00)
- https://www.cpushack.com/2011/03/31/cpu-of-the-day-mmi-6701-bit-slice/
AMD Am2901 (01:22:16)
- https://www.righto.com/2020/04/inside-am2901-amds-1970s-bit-slice.html
Data General Eclipse MV/8000 (01:23:24)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Eclipse_MV/8000
Mini Supercomputers (01:24:13)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minisupercomputer
Designing first chip at age 12 (01:25:11)
RS Latch (01:28:03)
- https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/chpt-10/s-r-latch/
74LS279 (01:28:39)
- https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn74ls279a.pdf
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)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Array_Logic
Meeting the Bit Slice Designers (01:38:03)
S-100 Bus (01:39:01)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_bus
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)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Am29000
Why RISC over CISC? (01:51:38)
- https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/risc/risccisc/
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)
- https://danielmangum.com/posts/retrospective-sparc-register-windows/
Texas Instruments TMS9900 (02:07:04)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS9900
Register Window Spill (02:11:14)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_window
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)

Transcript

Coming soon.