the team was only the beginning. We gave constant attention to the mix of skills and personalities, tweaking assignments, building proficiency, and shuffling people to optimize performance. It took absolute focus and die-hard persistence.
Know your competition and do your homework. Each player in this saga—Sony, Toshiba, IBM, and Microsoft—had a different race to run, a different set of rivals to beat. The strengths and accomplishments of the competition helped shape our project goals. Even at a personal level, this axiom applied.
Inspire innovation. We couldn’t reach those lofty chip design goals without flying there on the wings of invention. No one had ever done the things we set out to do and, contrary to popular belief, creative juices don’t just flow from a spigot with an on/off knob. Inspiration comes from the challenge of solving problems. You have to coax novel ideas into the light, then carefully dissect and analyze them. It takes a coach with finesse and expertise, and an inventor with thick skin.
Work hard, play hard, celebrate success. Chip design is exhausting, intense, complicated work, and we couldn’t survive it without a way to reenergize. Our playtime reinforced the interpersonal relationships, those priceless intangibles that made us want to come to work every day. Our celebrations put a spotlight on our accomplishments and helped us recognize real progress. It made us feel like winners.
Enable risk taking. The satisfaction that came from winning, the certainty we were on the right path, and the strength and support we gained from our fellow engineers and leaders—with these things, we believed we were invincible. We could step out on a limb with a new idea, challenge an outdated technological truism, or commit to a near impossible schedule.
Stay positive, even in the swirl of controversy. Of course, on the heels of invincibility comes the inevitable reality check. We had a huge load of work, very little time to do it, and many eyes watching us. Staying positive kept our focus on the desired results, even when it was so tempting to surrender to the naysayers.
Be proactive, anticipate problems, hold everyone accountable. Engineering problems that hit you out of the blue can crater a project. Utilizing proactive project management and anticipating the tough problems before they spiral out of control allows projects to stay on schedule and be delivered with high quality.
Stay laser focused on the end result. It is a common pitfall to focus on the obstacles and challenges we face in life. Staying focused on the fruits of the end result is what ultimately leads us to success.
The battle for supremacy over the gaming world will continue, and whichever side wins, that success will have been powered by the work of our team of brilliant designers. Mickie and I present the inside story of this chip development experience with two hopes: one, that it will inspire other engineers to reach for the stars and, two, that it will provide some valuable leadership lessons for other leaders and managers.
We feel compelled to offer this disclaimer. Although we did our utmost best to stay true to the story and the way we remember it unfolding, we recognize that memory is ultimately fallible. There are certain to be errors in our story, and we apologize in advance for any discrepancies that disturb or offend those most familiar with these events. We changed the names of some of the people in the story in order to protect their privacy. We hope you will enjoy this tale of human toil and triumph in the workplace the way we remember it.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are so many people we must thank for their support of our work and for their contributions (both intentional and unintentional) to this story.
First, our deepest and most sincere gratitude to our mentor, Chekib Akrout, for all the many things he taught us, for the doors he opened for us, and for his friendship. His optimism and enthusiastic leadership lifted us up to the challenges encountered during this chip-building effort. His truthfulness set the standard that we try to follow even today.
Secondly, we owe many thanks to the fearless Jim Kahle for his willingness to hold a hard line, his blistering drive, and the abundance of technical skills he shared with us.
Many thanks to the four extraordinary companies that made this technology possible: IBM, Sony, Toshiba, and Microsoft.
Our gifted coworkers from the four companies featured in this book are the true heroes who strive for perfection in their creations. We sincerely hope that the rewards of this challenging work continue to fulfill their dreams.
We will always be indebted to Darlene Dean and Ann Hatton for superb and timely editorial comments. Their touch made this a much better book.
We’d also like to thank our editor, Richard Ember. Richard “got it” the minute he heard our story. He is a great editor and his enthusiasm has been contagious. Thank you, Richard, for everything.
And last but not least, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank our families for their positive encouragement and rock-solid support on this exciting adventure. They were and still are our most trusted confidants, our patient and insightful first readers, and always our source of joy. Jerry, Leslie, Reed, and Grant—God bless you.
NOTE TO THE READER
Co-authors David Shippy and Mickie Phipps experienced this journey through the pressure-cooker world of technology development while working side by side at IBM in Austin, Texas. To bring their extraordinary story alive for you, they present it as a chip designer’s memoir written in first person in David Shippy’s voice. We hope you will enjoy their adventure.
PROLOGUE
THE EXCITEMENT BEGAN in the summer of 2003. My team and I had worked tirelessly at IBM for two and a half years, breathing life into the Sony PlayStation 3 “Cell” central processing chip. My team was responsible for the PowerPC microprocessor core in the central processing chip. It was an important subcomponent in the overall chip that performed the function of the “brains” for the entire PlayStation 3 game console. Our microprocessor core executed the instructions of the game console operating system and controlled the flow of information just like a traffic cop in a busy intersection. We ordered our lives around the idea of beating Microsoft to market with a Christmas 2005 launch of a revolutionary new game machine certain to soar to new heights of computing power and market share. Gamers worldwide would flock to this platform to blow away ghouls, race speedboats, and seduce bikini-clad vampiresses. With Sony’s dream to extend its empire to take over the home-computing business, a second and almost as consuming focus was the race with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to develop the chip that would surpass the world’s current performance record.
Then Dr. Chekib Akrout, IBM’s senior vice president responsible for the PlayStation’s chip team, told me another customer wanted our secret-weapon, record-smashing PowerPC microprocessor core. It was Microsoft.
We sat alone in his office, a barren, windowless hole on the sixth floor of an IBM building in Austin, Texas. Akrout leaned forward in his big leather executive chair and watched me, tapping his pen on his desk, waiting for my reaction to this shocking news. I was confused. Sony had agreed that IBM could use the PlayStation 3 PowerPC microprocessor core in other applications in the future, so IBM was on solid legal ground. Nevertheless, this new deal raised some sticky ethical questions in my mind. Wouldn’t we be competing against ourselves? Two-timing? Sleeping with the enemy? Sony was my partner! My temples pounded. Fury gripped my throat.
I was so angry I didn’t dare look at Akrout, so I swiveled my chair to the side and glared at the drab, bare wall instead. I wanted to make a competitive difference for Sony, who commissioned this little work of art. I spent years building a chip for them that would power their game machine
