Alistair Francis
Technologist at Western Digital
Queensland, Australia
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAlistair Francis is a technologist with 12 years of systems and embedded software experience, currently focused on RISC-V architecture and security as part of Western Digital’s open source research team. He combines deep RISC-V expertise—from assembly and specification-level work to firmware and emulation—while maintaining and developing QEMU, OpenSBI, and contributions across glibc, strace, OpenEmbedded/Yocto and OpenTitan. His background spans building cross-compilation and boot flows at Xilinx through upstream open-source collaboration, CI automation, and long-running maintenance of platform-specific QEMU trees. He has a pragmatic eye for portability and low-level correctness, demonstrated by fixes across 32-bit/64-bit boundaries, timer/CSR handling, and device-tree/platform support. Based in Queensland with a First Class Honours in Mechatronics from the University of Queensland, he pairs firmware-level rigor with a broad, community-minded open-source footprint on widely used projects. An understated strength is his repeated role in turning brittle build and boot pipelines into reproducible, upstream-friendly solutions that accelerate RISC-V bring-up.
12 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Engineering (BE) First Class Honors, Mechatronics, Bachelor of Engineering (BE) First Class Honors, Mechatronics at The University of QueenslandHigh School Diploma, High School Diploma at Somerset College
Github Skills (91)
python10
firmware10
bash10
c1110
yocto10
c1710
system10
automation10
encoding10
boot10
arm10
embedded10
pcie10
cross-compiling10
operating-system10
Programming languages (28)
Github contributions (5)
riscv/meta-riscv
Sep 2018 - Jan 2023
OpenEmbedded/Yocto layer for RISC-V Architecture
Role in this project:
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:157 reviews, 154 commits, 134 PRs in 4 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Alistair primarily contributed to the OpenEmbedded/Yocto layer for the RISC-V architecture. They implemented and updated U-Boot configurations, adding support for fitImage, setting boot targets, and configuring the serial console. Furthermore, the user upgraded the kernel to the latest stable release and addressed build issues related to 32-bit builds.
risc-vyocto-metaopenembedded-layerriscvyocto-layer
brendan-w/python-OBD
Oct 2018 - Jan 2023
OBD-II serial module for reading engine data
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:14 reviews, 35 commits, 48 PRs in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Alistair primarily contributed to the `python-obd` project by fixing bugs and implementing new features related to the OBD-II interface. They addressed issues with Python 3 compatibility, updated string handling, and improved the code base. The user also added support for entering and exiting low-power mode and enhanced the functionality for Mode 9 PIDs, including VIN and CVN, thereby extending the functionality of the OBD interface.
pythonbatteryserialautomotiveqbcore-framework
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