Show Notes
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/ Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/11
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Ben Titzer joins to talk about the history and future of WebAssembly, the design and implementation of V8's TurboFan optimizing compiler, and the Virgil programming language. We also discuss bringing high-level language features to constrained hardware, the V8 team's response to the Spectre and Meltdown side-channel attacks, and how to design high performance virtual machines. Ben's Site: https://s3d.cmu.edu/people/core-faculty/titzer-ben.html Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-l-titzer-6b78584/ Ben on Twitter: https://x.com/TitzerBL Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/1000
Kay Li joins to talk about custom hardware used in high-frequency trading, development workflows for FPGA and ASIC design, and why verification has become a bottleneck in the design process. We also discuss SiLogy, the startup Kay founded with Paul Kim to improve the design workflow, including their experience applying to and going through YCombinator, their initial target market, and how the platform could evolve over time. Kay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kay-li-84924128b/ Kay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/silikayli Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/111
Rick Altherr joins to talk about working on hardware performance analysis tools at Apple during the PowerPC to x86 transition, building flight control software for internet satellites at Google, discovering vulnerabilities in baseboard management controllers, and much more. We also spend an extended portion of the conversation on Rick's current work in quantum computing, including comparing and contrasting with classical computing, and examining some of the challenges of interfacing with these machines today. Rick's Site: https://www.kc8apf.net/ Rick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mxshift/ Rick on Mastodon: https://social.treehouse.systems/@mxshift Rick on GitHub: https://github.com/mx-shift Rick's Mentoring Sign-Up: https://calendly.com/mxshift Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/110
Matt Godbolt joins to talk about early microprocessors, working in the games industry, performance optimization on modern x86 CPUs, and the compute infrastructure that powers the financial trading industry. We also discuss Matt's work on bringing YouTube to early mobile phones, and the origin story of Compiler Explorer, Matt's well-known open source project and website. Matt's Site: https://xania.org/ Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/godbolt/ Matt on X: https://twitter.com/mattgodbolt Matt on Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@mattgodbolt Matt on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mattgodbolt.bsky.social Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/101
Nathanael Huffman joins to talk about the magic of FPGAs, the role they play in domains ranging from medical imaging to data centers, and how software development principles can be applied to logic design. We also discuss how Nathanael and the team at Oxide Computer Company built a new rack-scale computer while working remotely, and what exactly happens when it powers on and boots up. Nathanael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanael-huffman-5128024a/ Nathanael on X: https://twitter.com/SyntheticGate Nathanael on Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@SyntheticGate Detailed Show Notes: https://microarch.club/episodes/100