Bill Richardson Email & Phone Number

I work on embedded firmware and other low-level security things, most recently for Android Pixel phones.

I'm working on Chrome OS, specifically verified boot, BIOS, autoupdate, and other low-level things.

Senior member of the Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM) software team, responsible for developing and extending the firmware upgrade process, including the packaging system, flash layout, improved user interaction, automatic recovery, and cryptographic signatures. Also handled bringup and programming tasks for new systems and network switches, and worked on automated testing plans and frameworks. Technical lead for Sun Fire X4100/X4200 service processor. Ported bootloader and Linux kernel to new processor derivative, modified device drivers for our special-purpose hardware, created debug and development environments and OS distribution, maintained build processes, wrote and provided tools for manufacturing flow. Orchestrated technical direction for the approximately 20-person team for the full duration of the project.

Platform development for proprietary x86-based systems. Wrote and debugged several Linux kernel drivers, developed system simulation tools and interfaces, video capture tools, packaged OS distribution for our special hardware. Company acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2004.

Responsible for architecting and developing a software simulation of a custom hardware design, to meet the often-conflicting requirements of several different teams. This simulator was written in a mix of C, C++, and Verilog, and is used for RTL design validation, to implement mixed-mode RTL simulation, to provide a development platform for target software, and to allow performance estimates with clock-accurate timings. I was originally team lead, and later officially promoted to manager of the other developers on this project. I also developed reset firmware and debug frameworks for the hardware team, and assisted with bringup and testing of hardware prototypes. In addition, I administered some two dozen Linux-based workstations and compute servers.

Developed in-house architectural validation tools, particularly an automatic test generation environment. Designed components to allow dynamic, programmable control of constraint-solving, graph traversal, and data pruning algorithms. Also worked on the design and deployment of a bug tracking system using Microsoft web development tools and database engines. Wrote active server scripts for GUI generation, created a Unix command-line interface for automated use, and coordinated the transition of the Itanium(tm) design team to the new system. Developed and taught in-depth internal classes on the Perl programming language for several years.Performed architectural validation for the Itanium(tm) processor, particularly interrupt handling and control transfer between iA32 and iA64 applications. Instrumental in the development and success of backwards compatibility features allowing Itanium(tm) to correctly run legacy iA32 operating systems.

Designed and developed the first clock-accurate behavioral simulator for the 88110 RISC processor, wrote benchmarking and diagnostic programs and multiprocessor system tests. Validated and debugged the design of the 88100 RISC processor floating point unit and the 88200 cache controller, and developed a hardware test platform for future processor versions.

Ph.D., Computer Science

My dissertation focused on self-timed, asynchronous computer architectures, with emphasis on decoupled execution and exception handling..

M.S., Electrical Engineering

My program of study included microprocessor design, numerical analysis, semiconductor theory, VLSI circuit design, computer architecture.

B.S., Electrical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Campus Radio (WSBF)Standard undergraduate curriculum, with an emphasis on digital electronics and mathematics.