Show Notes
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://c
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