John D. Polstra, President John D. Polstra & Co., Inc. 1585 Channel Rd. Lopez Island, WA 98261-8233 +1 360 468-2269 j d p @ p o l s t r a . c o m

Specialties

• Unix application, kernel, and device driver development
• Communication protocols and networking
• Object-Oriented Design
• Language tools (compilers, assemblers, linkers, debuggers, parser generators)

Project Highlights

• Infiniband software (2004-2005)
  • Ported (with other programmers) the OpenIB Infiniband stack to a FreeBSD-based network appliance.
  • Ported the core protocol stack in the kernel.
  • Ported the OpenSM subnet manager in userspace.
• Spanning Tree Protocol implementation (2003-2004)
  • Implemented IEEE 802.1 Spanning Tree Protocol support in a network load-balancing appliance.
  • Includes full support for 802.1s Multiple Spanning Trees, with backward compatibility for earlier STP protocols.
  • Written in C++.
• Network appliance load testing software (2001-2003)
  • Simulates web clients and servers
  • In-kernel design yields extremely high performance: generates up to 50,000 HTTP sessions per second using inexpensive commodity PC hardware
  • Precise rate control (sub-microsecond granularity) for 100% repeatable tests
  • Extensive statistics gathering to identify performance bottlenecks
• Unix kernel enhancements for extremely high-performance networking (2000-2002)
  • Designed and implemented gigabit Ethernet offloading using asymmetric multiprocessing within the BSD Unix kernel
  • Optimized existing gigabit Ethernet drivers for much better performance
  • Designed and implemented cache-friendly data structures and algorithms for improved network performance on modern CPU architectures
• Consulting and development on an advanced communication/multimedia operating system (1999-2001)
  • Developed a lightweight threads package with features supporting real-time media delivery
  • Worked on development of a media-friendly thread scheduler
• Consulting on a TCP/IP stack for an embedded system (2000)
  • Guided the porting of the FreeBSD TCP/IP stack to an embedded TCP/IP accelerator card
• IP filtering and NAT support in a proprietary Unix kernel (1999)
  • Ported and integrated an open source package into a Streams-based kernel
  • The software is a key component of an Internet appliance server
• Keyboard/display driver for the world's first Unix on a golf cart (1999)
• SNMP support for a load-balancing DNS server (1998-1999)
  • Designed and implemented full support for the RFC1611 DNS Server MIB and a proprietary enterprise MIB
  • Operates as an independent sub-agent using the SMUX protocol
• Implemented Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) in a FreeBSD-based commercial router (1998)
• Firmware development for a digital video recorder and editor (1997-1998)
  • Designed and implemented key portions of the software
  • Served as C++ mentor for other project team members
  • Product, used by the broadcast industry, records digital video and audio on a SCSI RAID array
  • Software streams data between RAID and audio/video hardware in real time, and handles editing operations
• Unix kernel networking modifications for web server load-balancing (1997)
  • Ported load balancing and packet rewriting support to FreeBSD Unix kernel
  • Restructured it as a loadable kernel module for flexibility
• CVSup network software update package (1996-1997, with ongoing enhancements)
  • Efficient network updates for CVS repositories
  • Object-oriented, multi-threaded architecture
  • High-throughput streaming communications protocol
  • Yields excellent performance even on slow network channels
• ElfKit tool set for BSD Unix systems (1995-1996)
  • GNU compiler, assembler, and linker ports
  • Custom-developed ELF dynamic linker
• Dynamic linker speed-ups for FreeBSD Unix (1995)
  • Reduced the start-up time of many applications by a factor of 3

Ancient History

• PC-based actuarial modeling system (1991-1995)
  • Object-oriented design, implemented in C++
  • Detailed financial model for large life insurance companies
  • Custom high-speed actuarial formula parser and evaluator
• Retargetable optimizing compilers for Unix systems (1984-1993)
  • Source languages: C, Fortran, Pascal
  • Target architectures: x86, MIPS, 32032, others
• Assemblers, linkers, and disassemblers for Unix systems (1981-1993)
  • Target architectures: x86, MIPS, Z8000, Z80, 8085, 8051, 8048, others
• Intelligent multi-channel communications controller for Unix systems (1983-1984)
  • Implemented full Unix TTY support in controller firmware
  • Implemented device driver in Unix kernel
• Real-time OS design for a high-speed measurement system (1984-1985)
• Automated test software and hardware for digital systems (1984-1989)
  • Guided fault isolation, in-circuit test, memory device emulation
• C runtime library for the world's first microprocessor-based Unix system (1980)
• Routing and wire list software for automatic wire wrapping (1980-1981)
• LR(1) automatic parser generator (1979-1980)
  • Similar to YACC, but handles a larger class of grammars
• Communications multiplexer software (1977-1979)
  • Interfaced multiple RS-232 terminals to a 56 Kbps synchronous channel

Employment History

• President, John D. Polstra & Co., Inc., Seattle, WA (1979-present)
• Project Manager, Spectra Medical Systems, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (1977-1979)
• Member of the Technical Staff, Palyn Associates, Inc., San Jose, CA (1976-1977)

Education

• MSEE, Computer Engineering Program, Stanford University (1976)
• BSEE, University of Texas (1975)

Other Qualifications

• Project experience with many computer languages, including C++, C, Modula-3, Tcl/Tk, Python, Icon, Pascal, Fortran, and various assembly languages
• Vice President of the FreeBSD Foundation from 2000-2003
• Member of the FreeBSD core team from 1997-2000
• Member of the FreeBSD development team (1995-present)
• Holder of several patents in the field of automated digital test
• Member of the IEEE Computer Society and ACM