Systems Seminar: David Papworth, Intel Corporation

Designing the Digital Future: The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Engineers

Abstract

Many challenges face those who would design the microprocessors and digital systems of the coming years. Problems that were only minor annoyances in the past are becoming significant obstacles to further progress in line with historical growth rates. These include power consumption, complexity, interconnect delay, and validation. These challenges combine with traditional problems relating to inventing new technology, group dynamics, business issues, the frailties of human nature, and the scheduling of large projects. My talk will discuss both the new challenges and the traditional ones. I will discuss some case examples from my own experience, and will offer a "value set for engineers" which I believe separates "real engineers" from those merely looking for an income or a path up a management ladder. I will further suggest some ways in which new graduates can accelerate their effectiveness, growth, and ability to "stand out above the crowd" when undertaking a career within industry.

Speaker Bio

David Papworth graduated from the University of Michigan in 1979. He joined Prime computer and was one of 6 major contributors to the design and debug of the Prime 9950 supermini. Dave went on to become the second hardware designer at mini-supercomputer startup Multiflow Computer in 1984, and designed the instruction set architecture, system interconnect topology, two datapath ASICS, and portions of the compiler and operating system. Multiflow produced the first commercial VLIW computer, capable of executing 28 instructions per clock. Dave joined Intel Corporation in 1990 as one of the 3 senior architects of the Pentium Pro Processor, and was a major contributor to the design of the out-of-order core, branch prediction, renaming, fault ordering, compatibility, and bus microarchitecture. Dave drove the debug and production launch of this product, in a record time for a lead Intel CPU, and continues to support its derivatives to this day, with the family passing the 100,000,000 unit mark recently. Dave is inventor or co-inventor on more than 50 US patents, and was named "Intel Fellow" in 1998.