MIPS: Risking It All on RISC

In 1981, John Hennessey led the Stanford research team that developed a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor that had the potential to dramatically increase performance and reduce costs.

Then in 1984, Hennessy joined Skip Stritter and John Mousourris to cofound MIPS Computer Systems to take on the daunting task of bringing a RISC microprocessor to market.  Today called MIPS Technologies, it was the world's first commercial RISC chip company and one of the first "fab-less" semicondictor companies who rely on partners to fabricate their chips.  The final radical touch:  MIPS was a UNIX-based microprocessor, deeply influenced by the needs of the operating system and compilers.  Hennessy and team weren't just taking on huge hardware and software challenges, they were also taking on Intel, which by then had the dominant market position with its flagship processor family.

Join us for a panel discussion on the rise of one of the greatest business and technology stories of computer history.