11: Robert Garner

Date: 2024-03-13

Duration: 01:51:28

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Robert Garner joins for a fascinating tour of the last 50 years of computing, told through his experiences working alongside pioneers of the industry on projects like the optical mouse, the Xerox STAR workstation, Sun Microsystems’ SPARC instruction set architecture, and many more. We also discuss Robert’s work preserving and restoring systems at the Computer History Museum, and his upcoming book on the technical history of Ethernet.

Robert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertgarner/

Computer History Museum: https://computerhistory.org/

Show Notes

• Welcome Robert (00:01:28)
• Connecting via Tom Lyon (00:01:47)
  • https://mastodon.social/@aka_pugs
• Robert’s Childhood (00:02:39)
• Popular Electronics (00:02:59)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Electronics
• GE 225 Mainframe (00:04:36)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE-200_series
• Fortran (00:04:51)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran
• Time-Sharing Systems (00:05:04)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-sharing
• Sputnik and the Impact on Funding for Science & Technology (00:05:09)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
• Scientific Data Systems Sigma 7 (00:05:33)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS_Sigma_series
  • https://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/profess/SDSigma7.htm
• Sneaking into Arizona State University Library (00:06:18)
• National Math Exam (00:07:11)
• Starting the First Ecology Club in Arizona (00:07:25)
• Attending Arizona State University (00:07:54)
• Tektronix 4010 (00:08:13)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010
• PDP-10 (00:08:19)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-10
• PDP-15 (00:08:51)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-15
• HP-35 Calculator (00:09:45)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-35
• Importance of Early Exposure to Mechanical Engineering (00:09:50)
• Deciding to go to Graduate School (00:11:19)
• Deciding to go to Stanford (00:11:39)
• Switching from Information Theory to Computer Engineering (00:12:07)
• Don Knuth’s Algorithms Class (00:12:51)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth
• Talking to Don Knuth Many Years Later (00:13:03)
• The Art of Computer Programming (00:13:21)
  • https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html
• Joining Xerox (00:14:35)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company)
• Being Interviewed by Bob Metcalfe (00:14:46)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe
• First Project at Xerox (00:15:57)
• Xerox Alto (00:16:07)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto
  • https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/347
• 3 Megabit Ethernet (00:16:16)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet
• System Development Division (00:17:01)
• Butler Lampson (00:17:10)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler_Lampson
• Chuck Thacker (00:17:18)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_P._Thacker
• Xerox Star 8010 (00:17:44)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star
• Xerox Dolphin (D0) (00:17:53)
• Second System Syndrome (00:18:23)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect
• Xerox Dandelion (00:18:43)
• Emitter-Coupled Logic (ECL) (00:18:52)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emitter-coupled_logic
• MIT TX-1 (00:19:41)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TX-0
• Microcoded Devices and Shared CPU (00:19:49)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode
• Microcode for the Mouse (00:20:40)
• Wildflower (00:21:21)
• Intel 8086 and 8085 Microprocessors (00:22:36)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8086
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8085
• Data General Nova (00:23:50)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Nova
• Soul of a New Machine (00:23:56)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
• Mesa Programming Language (00:24:03)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa_(programming_language)
  • http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-79-3_Mesa_Language_Manual_Version_5.0.pdf
• Bit-Slice Processors (00:24:57)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_slicing
• Am2901 (00:25:06)
  • https://www.righto.com/2020/04/inside-am2901-amds-1970s-bit-slice.html
• Rewriting Microcode to Optimize Code Size (00:25:41)
• Single Address Space (00:26:18)
• Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) (00:26:24)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_instruction_set_computer
• Microcode Swapping (00:26:33)
• IBM System/360 (00:28:06)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360
• The Benefits of Updatable Microcode (00:28:19)
• Stack-Based Architectures (00:29:40)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_machine
• Forest Baskett (00:29:53)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Baskett
• Programming the Alto and Dandelion (00:30:46)
• Floppy Disks (00:32:04)
• The Growth and Adoption of Ethernet (00:32:10)
• ALOHAnet (00:32:47)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet
• David Boggs (00:33:04)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boggs
• Commerical Success of the Xerox Star (00:35:08)
• Charles Simonyi (00:36:05)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi
• The Bravo Editor (00:36:07)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_(editor)
• Doug Brotz (00:36:13)
  • https://computerhistory.org/profile/doug-brotz/
• Laurel Email Client (00:36:14)
  • https://youtu.be/tngrLvyiNEI
• Xerox Star File Server (00:36:46)
• Xerox Star Print Server (00:36:57)
• The IBM PC (00:39:30)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
• Charles Irby (00:40:04)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Irby
• The Final Demonstration of the Xerox Star (00:40:16)
  • https://youtu.be/_OwG_rQ_Hqw
• Xerox Daybreak (00:40:59)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Daybreak
• Xerox GlobalView (00:41:30)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalView
• The Optical Mouse (00:42:15)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_mouse
• Lynn Conway (00:42:22)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Conway
• Dick Lyon (00:42:35)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_F._Lyon
• Mead-Conway VLSI (00:43:46)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead%E2%80%93Conway_VLSI_chip_design_revolution
• The MOSIS Chip Project (00:44:37)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSIS
• Jim Clark (00:44:59)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Clark
• John Ousterhout (00:45:16)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ousterhout
• Xerox PARC Dragon Processor (00:46:10)
  • https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/36177.36185
• Moving to Sun Microsystems (00:46:34)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Microsystems
• Harold Hall (00:47:01)
  • https://www.sdstate.edu/distinguished-engineer-honorees/harold-h-hall
• Bob Taylor (00:47:03)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_(computer_scientist)
• DEC Systems Research Center (SRC) (00:47:13)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Systems_Research_Center
• Dave Patterson (00:47:39)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Patterson_(computer_scientist)
• Bill Joy (00:47:46)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Joy
• BSD Unix (00:48:07)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution
• Running into Bill Joy and Eric Schmidt at Tower Records (00:48:24)
• Eric Schmidt (00:48:48)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
• Kicking off the SPARC Project (00:51:03)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC
• IBM 801 (00:51:33)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_801
• DEC Titan (00:51:46)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_PRISM
• Adding Floating Point and MMU to Berkeley RISC (00:52:28)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_RISC
• Tagged Instructions (00:53:03)
  • https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/SPARC_Assembly/Arithmetic_Instructions#Tagged_Instructions
• The Benefits of Sun’s Vertical Integration (00:54:07)
• Bernie Lacroute (00:54:40)
  • https://computerhistory.org/profile/bernard-lacroute/
• Standard Cells (00:55:12)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_cell
• Anant Agrawal (00:55:52)
  • https://computerhistory.org/profile/anant-agrawal/
• The SPARC Versions Before v7 (00:56:23)
• No Integer Multiply in SPARC v7 (00:56:57)
• David Huff (00:57:43)
• IEEE 754 Floating Point (00:57:52)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic
• Motorola 68881 (00:58:18)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68881
• What does SPARC stand for? (00:58:38)
• The Scalability Goals of SPARC (00:59:39)
• Andy Bechtolsheim (01:00:43)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bechtolsheim
• Pradeep Sindhu (01:01:08)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pradeep_Sindhu
• SunDragon Processor (01:01:51)
  • http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/parc/techReports/CSL-93-17_Papers_from_the_SunDragon_Project.pdf
• LSI Logic (01:02:52)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSI_Corporation
• Sun4d (01:03:30)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun4d
• SPARC Architecture Decisions (01:03:53)
• Register Windows (01:04:47)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_window
  • https://danielmangum.com/posts/retrospective-sparc-register-windows/
• How to Use 1000 Registers (Richard Sites) (01:05:20)
  • http://caltechconf.library.caltech.edu/200/
• Register Coloring (01:06:15)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_allocation#Graph-coloring_allocation
• Steve Muchnick (01:06:23)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Muchnick
• HP PA-RISC (01:06:29)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PA-RISC
• Save & Restore Instructions (01:07:34)
• Register Spills (01:09:13)
• RISC-V (01:10:03)
  • https://riscv.org/
• von Neumann Architecture (01:10:25)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture
• Delay Slots (01:10:36)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_slot
• Annul Bit (01:11:00)
• Delayed Control-Transfer Instruction (DCTI) Couple (01:12:37)
  • https://www.cs.unm.edu/~maccabe/classes/341/labman/node3.html
• Floating Point Underflow (01:13:33)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_underflow
• Address Space Identifiers (ASI) (01:13:57)
• IOMMU (01:14:21)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input%E2%80%93output_memory_management_unit
• Prioritizing Users over Operating Systems (01:14:59)
• Andy Bechtolsheim’s Zero-Cost MMU in Sun-2 (01:15:15)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-2
• Sun-4 (01:16:12)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-4
• Motorola 68020 (01:17:34)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68020
• Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) (01:18:45)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_lookaside_buffer
• Security Leak with Register Windows (01:20:45)
• The Evolution of SPARC (01:21:11)
• Intentionally Restricting SPARC Opcode Space (01:21:31)
• SPARC Coprocessor Address Space (01:22:17)
• SPARC’s Expansion to 64-bit (01:22:45)
• SPARC v9 Kernel Register Sets (01:23:33)
  • https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18752_01/html/816-1681/sparcv9-15505.html
• MAJC (UltraJava) and picoJava (01:24:30)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAJC
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PicoJava
• The Beginning of Java (01:24:57)
• Wayne Rosing (01:25:44)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Rosing
• James Gosling (01:26:09)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling
• Intel Pentium (01:26:42)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium
• SPEC Benchmark Consortium (01:26:47)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Performance_Evaluation_Corporation
• Dhrystone Benchmark (01:27:02)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhrystone
• Register Renaming (01:27:44)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_renaming
• Michael Deering (01:29:20)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Deering
• Jensen Huang (01:29:41)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Huang
• Pitching Java to SEGA (01:31:56)
• SuperSPARC (Viking) (01:32:43)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperSPARC
• BiCMOS (01:33:16)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BiCMOS
• Gallium Arsenide (01:34:39)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium_arsenide#Transistor_uses
• UltraSPARC (Spitfire) (01:35:19)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraSPARC
• Oracle’s Acquisition of Sun Microsystems (01:36:45)
• CISC Machines vs. RISC Machines (01:37:12)
• IBM PowerPC (01:37:32)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
• Work at Computer History Museum (01:38:16)
  • https://computerhistory.org/
• Jini (01:38:49)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jini
• DEC PDP-1 (01:39:07)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1
• Nolan Bushnell (01:39:21)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Bushnell
• IBM 1401 (01:40:09)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1401
• Discovering an IBM 1401 in a Basement in Connecticut (01:41:59)
• Alan Kay (01:43:31)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay
• Live Demos at Computer History Museum (01:44:56)
• Technical History of Ethernet Book (01:45:07)
• ALOHAnet Oral History (01:46:21)
  • https://youtu.be/ji_nzyiOKME
• Token Ring (01:47:27)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_Ring
• Accessing Robert’s Ethernet Book (01:50:22)

Transcript

Coming soon.