Chris Desjardins

Offering software engineering services for embedded systems * Field busses - CAN, RS232, I2C, SPI, QSPI, I2S, etc... * MCU, MPU, ARM, x86, FPGA, CPLD * Device drivers, networking, security * RTOS, Bare metal, Linux, Android * C/C++, Python, and many others * bootloaders, secure boot * mqtt, tls, lwip, IoT * Hardware design, schematics

As tech lead I set the direction for the hardware and software development at Dott, including component selection, schematics reviews, mentoring firmware engineers, and electrical engineers in the team, and of course developing the foundations of our firmware platform for the other firmware engineers to build on top of and add to. Developed hardware and firmware systems to implement an IoT with 2G/4G connectivity, and highly precise GNSS solutions running from a ATSAME54 MCU. Starting from nothing and building the full platform from the ground up, including TLS enabled MQTT client with LWIP and mbed TLS on top of uCos-III, and hardware module selection (MCU, GNSS, 2G/4G, BLE, power path, etc...) Implemented a motor controller based on the STM32G4 platform, using the STM MCSDK and implementing it with uCos-III running the motor controller algorithm. Once again starting from nothing and building the platform up from scratch, reusing many of the firmware modules previously developed on the IoT.

As tech lead for the TomTom Bridge platform (https://www.tomtom.com/bridge/) I helped introduce many new hardware variations for the TomTom Bridge, including faster flash memory, new DDR, and 4g support. I also had a leadership roll in the introduction of the new TomTom HUB, a connected navigation device that makes use of a vehicle's built in display, or a tablet/cell phone display. I had to interface closely with the hardware team in Taipei, traveling to Taipei to bringup the HUB hardware. I also helped to define and refine software and hardware requirements for the HUB project, and worked at all levels of the Android stack to enable the HUB hardware. In addition to the HUB, I also continued work on the TomTom Bridge platform which we upgraded from Android Jellybean to Android Marshmallow, with the intent to launch the HUB on Marshmallow and then upgrade existing Bridge devices to the same Marshmallow platform. This involved leading the platform team in Amsterdam as well as a contract team in Bangalore India, refining requirements, porting TomTom customized software modules to Marshmallow, and supporting the TomTom application teams as they transitioned to Marshmallow.

Helped to enable Android platforms for a wide range of TomTom products, including the TomTom Go, Rider, Trucker, Bridge, and some built in systems as well. This included work at all levels of the Android stack, from Linux device drivers up to the user interface. Traveled to Taipei to help bring up the latest TomTom Go hardware based on the Qualcom APQ89xx SOC.

My main objective at ASI was to create a new high speed Timepix readout system capable of 1300+ frames per second. The Timepix ASIC is a single photon counting high spatial resolution, high contrast resolving CMOS X-ray sensor developed at CERN. I was the high level system architect for the Timepix readout electronics and software, as well as the primary software engineer for the full C++ firmware stack. During this project I had to work closely with the hardware engineer to integrate the software with the FPGA interface and other hardware components. The software stack I developed for the high speed readout platform consisted of the following components: 1) Linux device driver to interface to the FPGA over PCIe 2) Linux firmware load to interface with the device driver and provide an external interface for device control and frame storage. Frame data can be stored locally on the SATA hard drive or sent remotely over a gigabit TCP/IP connection. 3) Multi platform (Windows, Linux, and OSX) client side C/C++ API for remote command and control of the detector, Boost and cmake are used to eliminate platform dependencies. 4) Client side integration into user Java based interface software (via JNI) such as pixelman, or SoPhy. 5) Comprehensive automated test suite. In addition to the high speed readout system, I developed other hardware and software tools to help with detector calibration, sensor temperature stabilization, and X-ray tube power control, as well as maintained and supported the existing Timepix readout system developed by NIKHEF. These side projects involved C++ software development, Java GUI (swing) development, and Eagle PCB design.

Enabled business process automation by creating connections to legacy apps, including web services, remedy, edge, databases, and various web applications using C#, C++, java, and javascript.

Developed back-end Linux/Solaris C applications and Perl scripts that interfaced with MySQL Cluster to enable SMS subscriber provisioning platform and SMS services.

Developed low level hardware interfaces and device drivers in C to provide application access to devices such as Network adapters, FPGAs, CPLDs, Flash, including in system programming of programmable logic devices. Enabled a multiprocessor shared memory platform for next generation blade software architecture. Implemented a client server test application in C and C++ that was capable of stress testing the proprietary Tekelec back-plane communication protocol.

Developed a real time framework to provide a simplified way for applications to load and schedule tasks, perform inter processor communication, and manage memory on the BOPS DSP core. Implemented a highly parallel implementation of the OpenGL spec on the BOPS DSP core. Worked on tools to enable development for the BOPS DSP, including GNU assembler, and the BOPS debugger.