Interview: H. Peter Anvin, Linux and Microprocessor Architecture Geek

By Dawn M. Foster (84 posts) on October 20, 2009 at 8:00 am

H. Peter Anvin has been working on Linux since 1992, specializing in low level hardware. He is currently co-maintainer of the unified x86/x86-64 Linux kernel tree. Peter has contributed to numerous Linux kernel subsystems, and is the author and/or maintainer of several Open Source projects, including the Syslinux boot loader suite, the Netwide Assembler (NASM), klibc, and tftp-hpa. He is also the founder and President of The Linux Kernel Organization, which maintains the kernel.org servers across the globe. Peter lives in San Jose, California, working for Intel's Open Source Technology Center. He has previously worked as a architect and Technical Director at Transmeta, working on CPU architecture and Code Morphing Software, at Orion Multisystems, designing personal supercomputers and at rPath, working on Linux software appliances. In his spare time, he enjoys hacking programmable logic, scuba diving, and fuzzy bunnies.

Dawn: What do you like about working in Intel's Open Source Technology Center?

Peter: The two primary things I like about the Intel Open Source Technology Center is the caliber of people -- by now there are maybe four other companies in the world that have an equivalent collection of Open Source talent -- and the ability to work with the hardware architects. I have a long background of working with hardware people, and I really enjoy it, even though it can occasionally be frustrating. In general, I think if something isn't occasionally frustrating, it probably isn't worth doing.

The final thing I enjoy about the Intel Open Source Technology Center is that management is incredibly supportive of all my Open Source projects, not just the "big banner" project of Linux kernel x86 architecture maintenance.

Dawn: How has your work on Linux changed since you joined Intel?

Peter: The main thing, obviously, is being able to work with the hardware architects; both being able to get insight into what is coming down the pipe years ahead of public release and being able to influence the hardware roadmap. I have worked for hardware companies in the past, but none anywhere near as influential as Intel, so at those places we had limited room for invention.

Dawn: You have been working on Linux since the very early days. What are a couple of examples of your work?

Peter: What I'm best known for is probably the Syslinux boot loader, and that is almost certainly the one single project I have spent most total time on over the years. I also enjoyed working on the original autofs, which I handed over to Ian Kent a long time ago. However, what I really think is my biggest contribution to Linux is the aggregate work I have done on the kernel over the years.

Dawn: Can you tell us more about your hobbies of hacking programmable logic, scuba diving, and fuzzy bunnies?

Peter: I started hacking programmable logic back in the early 2000's, since I wanted to get a better understanding of how life looks from a hardware designer's perspective. I found it quite addictive, and ended up designing a replica of a 1978 Swedish microcomputer, the Luxor ABC80, using an Altera FPGA board; I also designed a 16-bit microcontroller core at one point. This even briefly turned professional at Orion Multisystems, where I ended up co-designing a southbridge-NIC combo chip.

I got into scuba diving at my honeymoon in Kauai, Hawaii in 2000. My wife loves sea turtles, and after going snorkeling a few times we decided to try actual diving. A few years later we ended up doing a dive trip on the Coral Sea in Australia in conjunction with linux.conf.au; since then we try to go diving as often as we can. It is a marvelous feeling and a lot of fun.

Back when my wife and I were first dating, this adorable little white bunny rabbit named Scamper hopped into our lives, and really never left even though she passed away last year. We now have a pair of rabbits named Dash and Eclipse, who can best be described as the fuzzy versions of Pinky and the Brain. Rabbits are really wonderful creatures, in part because they are so very genuine... you always know where you stand with a rabbit.

Categories: Open Source

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