Aki Van Ness
United States
Summary
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RockstarAki Van Ness is a systems-focused software engineer with 11 years of experience building low-level UNIX and embedded software, primarily in C++ and Python, with additional work in C, Rust, and platform assembly. They contribute to FPGA/HDL toolchains (nmigen and Verilog) and have notable open-source contributions to projects like Yosys and the Blackmagic debugger, improving synthesis metadata exports and robust JTAG support for Xilinx devices. Aki designs hardware-software integrations such as lethallink, a PCIe DMA platform for whole-system debugging, and leads Nox, an open toolset for Agilent PCIe analyzers. Equally comfortable in silicon-oriented workflows, they’re exploring ASIC tapeout paths (SkyWater shuttles) and enjoy hardware/software reverse engineering and eclectic creative pursuits that keep their curiosity sharp.
11 years of coding experience
English, Japanese
Github Skills (16)
debugging10
json10
embedded10
yosys10
c-language10
jtag10
metadata10
backend10
xilinx10
cprogramming-language10
sys10
back-end-development10
c119
cortex9
c179
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
YosysHQ/yosys
Oct 2021 - Oct 2022
Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:5 reviews, 36 commits, 16 PRs in 11 months
Contributions summary:Aki primarily contributed to the development of a "jny" backend pass for the Yosys Open SYnthesis Suite. Their work focused on creating a JSON metadata output for design analysis, including the implementation of features like cell sorting, connection output, and parameter/attribute inclusion. The user also refactored code, fixed bugs related to string escaping, and refined output formatting within the metadata generation process. Their contributions enhanced the design information exported by the tool.
yosys
blackmagic-debug/blackmagic
Oct 2019 - Sep 2023
In-application debugger for ARM Cortex and RISC-V processors.
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer
Embedded Systems EngineerContributions:2 PRs in 3 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Aki primarily contributed to debugging and improving the interaction with JTAG debuggers for ARM Cortex microcontrollers. Their work focused on fixing bugs, improving the robustness of the JTAG interface, and adding support for various Xilinx devices by correcting IR lengths and values. This included updates to device descriptions and handling specific quirks for different Xilinx parts, ensuring accurate communication for debugging. They also addressed a memory leak.
armrisc-v
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