# A Requiem for SPARC with Tom Lyon

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2021-05-11
- Length: 1h 32m
- Episode: 2
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b8d12de1

## Summary

Tom Lyon, former Sun employee #8, joins Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal to discuss the history of the SPARC architecture, covering its innovative but flawed design choices like register windows and delay slots. The conversation details the catastrophic eCache parity errors caused by manufacturing defects like radioactive boron, which led to widespread system failures and customer mistrust. They also reflect on the decline of SPARC through underperforming chips like Cheetah and Niagara, contrasting Sun's hardware struggles with the eventual dominance of x86 and AMD64.

## Chapters

- [0:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=3) Introduction and SPARC 30th Anniversary
- [2:55](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=175) SPARCstation 2 and Bring-Up Lab Stories
- [8:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=529) Register Windows and Integer Multiply Omission
- [12:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=754) Register Fishing and DCTI Couples
- [25:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=1537) eCache Parity Errors and Manufacturing Defects
- [35:08](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=2108) Cheetah, Viking, and Product Roadmap Failures
- [48:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=2902) Fujitsu Turbosparc and Niagara Performance
- [1:04:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon#t=3840) RISC Origins and Intel 432 Comparison

## Topics

- [Microcontrollers & dev platforms](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/microcontrollers-and-platforms)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Chips, FPGAs & semiconductors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/chips-and-fpgas)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- SPARC (chip)
- Sun Microsystems (company)
- SPARCstation 2 (product)
- SPARCstation 1 (product)
- UltraSPARC (chip)
- Cheetah (chip)
- Viking (chip)
- Niagara (chip)
- Fujitsu (company)
- Turbosparc (chip)
- Intel 432 (chip)
- IBM (company)
- HPE (company)
- Solaris (product)
- illumos (product)
- DTrace (tool)
- OpenBoot (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Really long needle nose pliers](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2024-04-25-really-long-needle-nose-pliers) (The Amp Hour)
- [The Spark Gap - Episode 15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-spark-gap/2014-09-24-the-spark-gap-episode-15) (The Spark Gap)
- [Project Management, Lasers & Robots - Staunch Specialty Sanctanimity](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-04-10-project-management-lasers-robots-staunch-specialty-sanctanimity) (The Amp Hour)
- [376: Left Half of My Brain Is Digital](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-10-376-left-half-of-my-brain-is-digital) (Embedded.fm)
- [Radiation Chips & Old Package Types - Technocratic Toilet Troubleshooting](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2011-11-08-radiation-chips-old-package-types-technocratic-toilet-troubleshooting) (The Amp Hour)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-05-11-a-requiem-for-sparc-with-tom-lyon. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.