Charles Laforest
Owner at GateForge Consulting Ltd.
Old Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolCharles Laforest is an FPGA design consultant and founder with 13+ years delivering high-speed, system-level FPGA solutions and Linux software for industrial, scientific, and cloud applications. He specializes in modular Verilog-2001 designs and system integration—having integrated real-time video processing, ML accelerators, multiple codecs and DDR4 controllers on a 500 MHz Virtex UltraScale+ and written the multi-core host software to handle parallel 1080p30 streams. His work spans the toolchain (Quartus, Vivado, ISE), devices from Spartan-6Q to UltraScale+ (including space-rating and ASIC emulation), and a two-decade background in Linux kernel and userland development. He follows documented in-house standards for system design and Verilog coding that accelerate timing closure and reusability, and maintains a public library of FPGA design elements. Based in Old Toronto, he combines academic depth (MEng/PhD work in computer engineering) with hands-on product delivery for clients seeking compact, low-power alternatives to CPUs/GPUs.
13 years of coding experience
4 years of employment as a software developer
Algonquin CollegeMaster's degree, Computer Engineering, Master's degree, Computer Engineering at University of TorontoBachelor of Independent Studies, Computer Architecture, Bachelor of Independent Studies, Computer Architecture at University of Waterloo
French, English
Github Skills (12)
fpga10
self-contained10
simulator9
cpp9
verilog9
verilator9
lint8
systemc8
systemverilog8
oscilloscope5
usb2
signal2
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
laforest/EdgarHoover
Mar 2013 - May 2019
Contributions:41 commits, 18 pushes in 6 years 2 months
laforest/FPGADesignElements
Oct 2019 - Nov 2022
A self-contained online book containing a library of FPGA design modules and related coding/design guides.
Contributions:378 commits, 9 PRs, 180 pushes in 3 years 1 month
self-containedfpga
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