Howard Chu

Career Objectives

Work Experience

June 1999 - Present

Founder and Chief Architect, Symas Corp.
Designed and implemented Connexitor large-scale LDAP-based resource and identity-management system. Designed identity-based IP firewall for Solaris, Linux, and IRIX. Designed and implemented embedded speech-recognition engine for TI DSP. Designed and implemented AC'97 codec emulator for TI DSP. Core team member of the OpenLDAP project, designing, implementing, and optimizing new features in the OpenLDAP code base. Demonstrated expertise in porting software (OpenSSL, Cyrus SASL, BerkeleyDB, OpenLDAP) to arcane environments (Windows, IBM OS/390, embedded Linux, etc.).

September 1996 - June 1999

Principal Member of Technical Staff, PLATINUM technology, inc.
(Same as previous job; Locus was acquired by PLATINUM.) Further development of PC-Enterprise/Macintosh product, including support for AFP version 2.2, AppleShare over TCP/IP, optimized AppleTalk stack, secure authentication for Macintosh, improved LaserWriter 8 printer driver support. (Product version 6.1 released in July 1997.) Principal investigator of Kerberos, DCE, and SSL security technology. Integrated AutoSecure/ACX with PLATINUM ProVision. Principal investigator of LDAP and X.500 technology. Principal architect of distributed security management system, utilizing Object Oriented (Catalysis/UML) design methodology. Developed 64-bit kernel support for AutoSecure/ACX on HPUX 11.00.

January 1995 - August 1996

Senior Member of Technical Staff, Locus Computing Corporation
Completed development of Locus' PC-Interface for Macintosh Appletalk package for Motorola SVR4 on MC88000, which required debugging the complete Appletalk Protocol stack including the Apple Filing Protocol and Printer Access Protocol. Completed port of PC-Interface for DOS to MIPS ABI. Developed enhanced printer filter for transparent handling of both PostScript and HP PCL5 intermixed in print streams. Developed DLPI drivers for Appletalk on IBM Token-Ring and FDDI on AIX, SCO, Solaris, and Motorola SVR4. Developed remote Unix system administration server with custom Macintosh client. Developed enhanced AppleShare server supporting multiple filesystems, including NFS, AFS, and DCE/DFS. Developed dynamic support for AFS and DCE/DFS to allow single server binaries to operate on hosts with or without AFS or DCE/DFS installations, supported on AIX, SunOS, Solaris, HPUX, and SGI IRIX. Developed a unified Kerberos 4 and Kerberos 5 client library for Windows. Developed secure authentication protocol for PC-Interface client providing authenticated access to AFS and DCE/DFS. Developed remote ACL manipulation protocol allowing authenticated PC-Interface client to manipulate AFS and DCE/DFS ACLs.

January 1994 - December 1994

Senior Systems Engineer, Lloyd Internetworking
Configure basic network services for Unix systems (e.g. mail, Usenet News, Domain Name Service). Develop Unix system security software for network and host-level security. Develop custom TCP/IP router code for Intel, Motorola, and MIPS processors using RIP and OSPF.

January 1994 - December 1994

On-call Consultant, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Radar Sciences
Provided system support during Shuttle Imaging Radar flights. Created software solutions in realtime for critical system failures during mission. Assist in low-level system support.

October 1992 - December 1994

Senior Software Engineer, Pleiades Research Corporation
Develop Digital Storefront voice-mail software for Atari Falcon using custom telephone interface hardware. Define and implement all aspects of package, including graphical user interface, mailbox database, digital audio interface, telephone interface control, and digital signal processing routines. Develop high speed math routines to implement faster-than-realtime FFT for telephone call- progress monitoring. Develop frequency synthesis routines for telephone DTMF tone generation. Design multithreaded audio interface code to support multi-line telephone interface.

March 1991 - January 1994

Member of Technical Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Radar Sciences
Lead software engineer for Control Executive for Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C) Ground Data Processing System (GDPS). Evaluate networking and computing performance of parallel multiprocessor systems. Develop communication and control mechanisms for processes distributed across single and multiprocessor (Sun, Alliant, and Thinking Machines) Unix systems, using MOTIF-based operator interface. Provide system administration and security management for SIR-C GDPS Unix systems. Provide low-level system support, including optimization of parallel TCP/IP drivers, parallel C compilers, writing DMA VME device drivers, and porting GNU C compiler to Alliant FX/2800. Provide local network administration, including routing maintenance and domain name and network time synchronization services.

November 1987 - February 1991

Systems Research Programmer, LS&A Office of Information Systems
Implement novel networking schemes for integration of heterogeneous computing systems (including Apple Macintosh, IBM PC, DEC VAXstation, DECstation, NeXT and Sun workstation hardware). Personally responsible for coordinating networks for all the departments within the College. Educate staff in use of Unix and TCP/IP networks. Install and maintain gateways for heterogeneous networks, including TCP/IP, DECnet, and Appletalk on Unix workstations. Evaluate and recommend hardware and networking solutions for various college departments. Provide on-site system administration and support for Math and Astronomy departments.

November 1987 - February 1991 (held concurrently with above)

Systems Research Programmer, University of Michigan Computing Center
Develop and optimize Vax and Sun networking code, including serial, X.29 and ethernet device drivers, and IP, TCP and UDP service layers. Improve and extend vendor-supplied disk device drivers. Debug and stabilize Sun-NFS across multiple hardware platforms. Port Unix network services to MTS, including implementation of Berkeley sockets.

January 1987 - November 1987

Systems Programmer, University of Michigan Computing Center
Administer UUCP mail and Usenet News on Vax, Apollos, and Suns. Assist in smooth delivery of network mail. Develop new user interfaces for existing Unix applications. Port applications to multiple vendors' machines and environments, including Vax running Berkeley 4.3 Unix, Apollo running DOMAIN/IX, and Sun running SunOS Unix. Port X Windowing System Version 11 release 1 to Apollo DOMAIN/IX. Serve as system firefighter for both MTS and Unix systems. Modify Unix applications for use on MTS.

January 1986 - December 1986

Computing Consultant, University of Michigan Computing Center
Assisted general users with both programming and application questions on all manner of computer systems, including Apple ][, Apple Macintosh, MS-DOS, Vax, Apollo, and MTS. Specialized in intersystem communications and file transfer protocols.

Singer, musician, dancer, band leader: Founder of Highland Sun, performing traditional Celtic music.