Turing Award Winner: TPU vs GPU vs CPU, Computer Architecture, RISC vs CISC | David Patterson

David Patterson is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to computer architecture. I interviewed him about his past work, thoughts on GPU/TPUs and career advice from half a century of experience.

• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: read.compose.llc
• The Kickstarter page for it: kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose…

Podcast links:

• YouTube: youtu.be/Pn4ZwlEh5nw
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod…
• Transcript: developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-tpu-vs-gp…

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:42) RISC vs CISC
(12:51) Compilers
(17:38) GPUs
(23:07) GPU vs TPU vs CPU
(32:12) Is Moores law dead?
(38:04) GPU benchmarks
(41:40) How to have a bad career
(49:59) Courage and optimism
(55:56) Advice for his younger self
(58:15) Outro

Where to find David:

• Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Patterson_(compute…)

Where to find Ryan:

• Newsletter: developing.dev
• X/Twitter: x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Referenced in this episode:

• AlexNet paper: proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2012/…
• David Patterson's “How to Have a Bad Career” talk: youtube.com/watch?v=Rn1w4MRHIhc
• “Life Lessons from the First Half-Century of My Career”: cacm.acm.org/opinion/life-lessons-from-the-fir…
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (book): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_E…
• Working (book): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book)