SPARC microprocessor oral history panel : session one : origin and evolution
Catalog Number
102745979
Type
Text
Date
2011-06-09
Contributor
Agrawal, Anant, Panelist
Garner, Robert, Panelist
Gwennap, Linley, Moderator
House, David, Introductory speaker; attendee
Joy, Bill, Panelist
Kapoor, Uday, Introductory speaker; attendee
Patterson, David A., Panelist
Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Mountain View, California
Extent
67 p.
Copyright Holder
Computer History Museum
Description
This panel discussion describes the origins and evolution of the SPARC processor at Sun. The panel consists of Anant Agrawal, Robert Garner, Bill Joy, and David Patterson. The moderator is Linley Gwennap. The discussion begins with the roots of Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) and continues to tell why a small startup, Sun, decided to develop their own microprocessor called SPARC, Scalable Processor ARChitecture, with a RISC architecture. The panelists discuss both the technical and business challenges of this chosen path, through multiple generations of ever-increasing complexity chips. They discuss failures along with their successes and conclude with the impact of developing this new processor architecture on the industry and the ultimate success of the company.
