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Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

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Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#61

Post by comboy »

celeritascelery wrote: post #53
comboy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moar. Maybe you have some more stories or insights from him. I'm a shameless fanboy. I also listened to I think every podcast (not many of them unfortunately, Lex ones seem the best as expected). This guy oozes wisdom.

I will share one more story. Some of the leaders were saying they couldn't hit the validation milestone because of all the things that had to completed before they could sign-off. Jim Keller's response was: "This is how were going to validate this chip: 1. go to the beach 2. open your laptop 3. run the chip in emulation through boot 4. tape-in! (send to the fab) 5. take the rest of the year off at the beach " His poi…

Thanks :)

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#62

Post by bch »

ethbr0 wrote: post #34
justinclift wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like that'd have reliability concerns in an environment where the whole thing can receive substantial shocks (the physical kind) over time.

Only if there's motion. Something can be bent and also secured.

Environment dependent as to whether this is a consideration at all, but still a potential stress riser.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#63

Post by specialist »

beebmam wrote: post #4
mikhailfranco wrote: post #3

I recommend Keller's appearances on the Lex Fridman podcast, and also the chat with his (Keller's) brother-in-law Jordan Peterson.

I found that Lex interview enlightening for two reasons. Firstly, Keller is a profoundly talented and interesting guy. And secondly, Lex is a truly painful and incompetent interviewer; virtually every time Lex spoke I begged my screen for him to stay quiet and let Keller speak.

If not Lex, which host(s) do you prefer?

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#64

Post by mandeepj »

geokon wrote: post #12
beebmam wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that Lex interview enlightening for two reasons. Firstly, Keller is a profoundly talented and interesting guy. And secondly, Lex is a truly painful and incompetent interviewer; virtually every time Lex spoke I begged my screen for him to stay quiet and let Keller speak.

Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests?

> Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests?

Once you have some, they might have introduced him to others like a chain or linked list (if that sounds better ref)

Lex shared this on his podcast as well: It's not easy to find or get hold of Donald Knuth. But, he kept trying and finally got him. Persistence pays, I guess.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#65

Post by specialist »

comboy wrote: post #50
hebrox wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same feeling with a lot of interviews from the past, but somehow, about a year ago, something changed. Not sure if it was a conscious decision or just the result of so much practice, but for quite something I haven’t screamed at my screen when listening to Lex.

I think Lex is a very talented interviewer. His questions often seem low quality (to me), but he pushes the discussion in the correct direction. He seem to be e.g. build sentences where after the first part there is a moment for guest to throw in something or for Lex to judge guest reaction. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, but regardless, he seem to be able to get something out of these guys which others inter…

Agreed.

Lex's done some of my favorite geek interviews. Just from memory: Stephen Kotkin, Roger Penrose, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Everyday Astronaut, Jim Keller, his own father. Many more I'm sure, if I consulted Lex's archive.

I skip over the episodes with culture warriors. I've already had my fill, thank you very much.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#66

Post by toast0 »

belval wrote: post #44
trustingtrust wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should see his interviews with Dr. Ian Cutress. The man basically knows everything in the industry in and out and knows how to create great teams. I want to interview for Tenstorrent at some point and would love to work for him. I feel being part of great teams is what he has been fortunate with. People very easily forget the rest of the team in chip design and make it about one person. I feel he's a true leader…

The cult of personality is always an enticing idea, it's pretty much certain that Jim Keller had a stellar team to work with in all of those places. That being said, even a strong team is still usually only as good as its leadership. You can have all the great ideas in the world, but if the organisation does not allow you to pursue them (or on the other extreme, allows everyone to work on what they think is best) you…

One thing I gathered from interviews is that Jim Keller is good at identifying good people already on the teams and inspiring and working with them to set the priorities and goals to make a better product. The team that built Zen isn't that much different than the team that built Bulldozer, but Zen is a much better product. He's also pretty good at spreading the credit around.

Having a good grasp of everything in the whole stack is obviously helpful for setting priorities and goals, and there's a lot of leadership skills involved in getting people to work together and follow the organizational goals. Having a track record of success is obviously helpful, too.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#67

Post by indy »

systemvoltage wrote: post #60
indy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His guests are often so interesting that it's worth persevering through Lex's un-profound musings. (Every time he uses the word 'beautiful' or 'love' it reminds me of a pretentious teenager who lacks life experience)

Haha, I kind of agree but I’m starting to think that dumb interviewers are a feature, not a bug. They ask obvious mid questions that are difficult to answer without giving away any tricks if you had them. He is ok. Not that bad.

Asking obvious mid questions is one thing, but Lex often interjects with his own mid opinions. Or he takes what could have been an interesting line of questioning and diverts it to banal cod-philosophy often using words like 'beautiful' or 'love' in an attempt at profundity

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#68

Post by saagarjha »

celeritascelery wrote: post #53
comboy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moar. Maybe you have some more stories or insights from him. I'm a shameless fanboy. I also listened to I think every podcast (not many of them unfortunately, Lex ones seem the best as expected). This guy oozes wisdom.

I will share one more story. Some of the leaders were saying they couldn't hit the validation milestone because of all the things that had to completed before they could sign-off. Jim Keller's response was: "This is how were going to validate this chip: 1. go to the beach 2. open your laptop 3. run the chip in emulation through boot 4. tape-in! (send to the fab) 5. take the rest of the year off at the beach " His poi…

Wonder if this came back to bite Intel later.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#69

Post by RealityVoid »

bch wrote: post #62
ethbr0 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if there's motion. Something can be bent and also secured.

Environment dependent as to whether this is a consideration at all, but still a potential stress riser.

The whole assembly was potted, encased in resin.

Re: Jim Keller and his pioneering work on chip design and architecture

#70

Post by nixass »

celeritascelery wrote: post #53
comboy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moar. Maybe you have some more stories or insights from him. I'm a shameless fanboy. I also listened to I think every podcast (not many of them unfortunately, Lex ones seem the best as expected). This guy oozes wisdom.

I will share one more story. Some of the leaders were saying they couldn't hit the validation milestone because of all the things that had to completed before they could sign-off. Jim Keller's response was: "This is how were going to validate this chip: 1. go to the beach 2. open your laptop 3. run the chip in emulation through boot 4. tape-in! (send to the fab) 5. take the rest of the year off at the beach " His poi…

Jordan Peterson interviewing Jim Keller. What a time to be alive
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