Conifer Systems LLC is an Austin, Texas-based provider of software configuration management tools. Founded in May 2008 by Matt Craighead, a former software architect at NVIDIA Corporation and a veteran of many large software and hardware projects, the company is privately held and entirely self-funded.Check out our product, Cascade: http://www.conifersystems.com/cascade/

Responsible for overall software architecture of device drivers used for products in the mobile business unit. Designed new APIs to be used between modules. Code reviewed existing modules and APIs to identify problems and future possible enhancements. Advised hardware team on future hardware architecture directions. Redesigned build system and official release process, supporting many target platforms.

Developed and optimized simulation infrastructure to allow device drivers and tests to be run live on cmodel and RTL GPU hardware simulators. Standardized company on a single diagnostic infrastructure for all groups and all product lines. Revamped GPU hardware verification flow to use production device drivers as an integral component of all hardware verification, delivering all milestones ahead of schedule and supporting a team of over 100 architecture and hardware engineers working on GeForce 8xxx series products. Advised other groups on future software and hardware architecture directions.

Implemented new OpenGL device driver features and optimizations. Advised architecture and hardware groups on feature set for future GPU products. Assisted developer relations group and external OpenGL developers with driver issues and optimizing for new GPUs. Attended OpenGL Architecture Review Board working group sessions and meetings.

Worked on integrating advanced lighting models into the texture extraction process for the MIT City Scanning project. Integrated solar ephemeris model into large-scale urban visualization environment. Used C++, IRIX, OpenGL, Motif, makefiles, and CVS. Collaborated via teleconferences with UC-Berkeley on software architectural issues. Working under the supervision of Prof. Seth Teller. See http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/city/city.html for more project information.

Designed and developed Windows graphical applications for company’s clients. Used C/C++, GDI (including DIBs, metafiles, and transformations), MDI, dialogs, printing, multithreading, and DirectSound. Helped ensure that product would port to MacOS easily.