Hector Martin
Founder And Project Lead at Self-Employed
Chiyoda, Japan
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolHector Martin is the founder and project lead of Asahi Linux and a systems, hardware and security engineer with 25 years of experience based in Chiyoda, Japan. He specializes in low-level Linux kernel, firmware and driver development, embedded systems, FPGA/HDL and reverse engineering of obfuscated and proprietary hardware and cryptographic systems. His open-source footprint spans high-profile projects — from implementing TSC/LAPIC calibration and PS4 subarchitecture support, Apple SPI and NVMe kernel drivers, and a UART proxy for Apple Silicon's m1n1 bootloader, to audio and driver improvements in mpv, Ardour and OBS. A former Google SRE, he pairs operating petabyte-scale storage and distributed systems with ongoing security and engineering consultancy focused on embedded platforms. Known for a hands-on "if it ain't broke, I'll fix it" mindset, he is currently focused on Asahi Linux and not seeking full-time web/frontend roles.
25 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
High School, High School at American School of BilbaoElectrical and Computer Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida Institute of TechnologyHigh School / College, Computer Science, High School / College, Computer Science at University of West GeorgiaUOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
English, Spanish, Japanese
Stackoverflow
101reputation
0reached
0answers
0questions
Github Skills (95)
python10
multithreading10
firmware10
fm-radio10
bash10
drivers10
c1110
spi10
c1710
low-level-programming10
device-driver10
boot10
sockets10
socketio10
arm10
Programming languages (26)
Github contributions (5)
AsahiLinux/m1n1
Jan 2021 - Jan 2023
A bootloader and experimentation playground for Apple Silicon
Role in this project:
Back-end & Firmware Developer
Back-end & Firmware DeveloperContributions:79 reviews, 957 commits, 258 PRs in 1 year 11 months
Contributions summary:Hector made significant contributions to the bootloader and experimentation playground for Apple Silicon. Their work included implementing a UART proxy to communicate with the host, which involved handling communication protocols, error checking and memory transfers. They also contributed to system memory management, adding a custom heap and integrating it with existing code. Further contributions involve working on the hardware abstraction layer and low-level hardware initialization.
experimentationsiliconbazelapple-siliconbootloader
fail0verflow/ps4-linux
Nov 2015 - Dec 2016
Linux kernel fork with PS4 support (work in progress)
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / Low-Level Kernel Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / Low-Level Kernel DeveloperContributions:111 commits, 22 pushes, 7 branches in 1 year 1 month
Contributions summary:Hector primarily focused on porting Linux kernel support for the PS4 platform, specifically the "fail0verflow/ps4-linux" repository. Their contributions involved adding a PS4 subarchitecture, including crucial TSC/LAPIC calibration code for the x86 architecture. They modified existing drivers and platform-specific code to enable and support the PS4's hardware components. Additionally, they wrote drivers for the Aeolia chipset's I2C, power button, and SD card reader.
kernelin-progresslinuxps4linux-kernel
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