duncan@hammer.me.toronto.edu (11/09/88)
Dr. John Mashey, V.P. of Systems Technology at MIPS Computers Inc. will be speaking at the University of Toronto on RISC development. DATE: WED Nov 16th TIME: 3:30 PM ROOM: SF1101 (Sanford Fleming, 10 Kings College Rd) TOPIC: "RISC, MIPS, and the Motion of Complexity" John Mashey may be known to many of you by his frequent postings to comp.arch on the net. MIPS has supplied a backgrounder on him and his talk which I have included verbatim. We have had visits from both MIPS and SUN in the past, which have been very well attended (and even interesting, from time to time). MIPS makes an interesting RISC computer which is in competition with Sun's SPARC processor. Hope to see you there, Dunc. ================== BACKGROUNDER ============================= RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture has recently become a very hot topic, as research efforts have led to a number of commercial products. The goal of RISC is to make faster computers cheaper, using optimizing compilers, carefully engineered instruction sets, and high-preformance memory hierarchies. RISC designs have established themselves rapidly in the marketplace, beginning with high-performance workstations, but spreading to other areas. Although CISC designs will certainly survive, it now seems there will be no new successful CISC architectures. Like the CISC micro battles of the early 1980's, a ferocious war is now being fought over which, if any, RISC micros will be considered "standards". This talk reviews the motivation for the RISC approach, some of its history, notable variations in its application, and its fit with UNIX. It describes some of the work on RISC at MIPS Computer Systems, emphasizing the interaction of chip design with optimizing compilers and operating systems, using the fastest current RISC chips (MIPS R3000s) as examples. Dr. Mashey joined Bell Laboratories in 1973, starting in the Programmer's Workbench department the week its first PDP-11/45 arrived. He worked on various UNIX-related projects, including PWB/UNIC4X, command languages, text processing, the merger of UNIX versions that resulted in UNIX/TS 1.0, and UNIX-based applications for use in the Bell System. In 1983, he moved to Convergent Technologies, ending as Director of Software Engineering for the Data Systems Division. In 1985, he joined MIPS Computer Systems, where he helped design the MIPS R2000 RISC architecture, and managed operating systems, networking, and software QA. He was an ACM National Lecturer for 4 years, and has given about 250 public talks on software engineering, UNIX, and RISC design. -- Duncan Poole Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto Usenet: duncan@me.toronto.edu, duncan@me.utoronto.ca Netnorth: DUNCAN at UTORONTO Phone: (416) 978-4987