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....