Fábio Cunha
Lead Developer & Founder
About Me
As an Electronics Engineer specializing in Embedded Systems and Power Electronics, I heavily prioritize research, believing that complex modern systems require building upon existing knowledge.
My experience spans both microcontrollers and high-level embedded Linux. I'm proficient with Arm Cortex-M MCUs (like STM32, Nordic, and NXP) using mbed OS, vendor HALs, and FreeRTOS, and I am currently exploring Zephyr.
I am also confident in creating custom Linux systems using Yocto and Buildroot for Arm Cortex-A devices, including Xilinx Zynq and Altera SoCs. My interests are expanding into Android (AOSP) development, with a goal of mastering Lineage OS.
Currently, my focus is on implementing neural networks using OpenVINO on Microchip PolarFire RISC-V SoCs, utilizing their built-in FPGA and CNN accelerators. I operate on the principle that nothing is impossible given the time to read the documentation.
Nothing is impossible, if I have the time to read the documentation.
Skills
Programming Languages
- C
- C++
- Bash
- SystemVerilog
- VHDL
- SystemC
- Assembly
- Python
- Rust
- TCL
- C#
- TypeScript
Embedded Linux
- Linux Kernel
- Yocto
- Buildroot
- U-Boot
- Device Drivers
- IPC
RTOS
- FreeRTOS
- Zephyr
- PikeOS
Interfaces & Protocols
Basic
- SPI
- I2C
- UART
Wireless & Cellular
- Bluetooth
- LoRa
- Zigbee
- Wi-Fi
- NB-IoT
Automotive & Industrial
- MQTT
- Modbus
- CAN
- LIN
Processors
ARM-CORTEX-A
- Zynq UltraScale+ (Cortex-A53)
- i.MX 8M Plus (Cortex-A53)
- STM32MP2 (Cortex-A35)
- Zynq 7000 (Cortex-A9)
ARM-CORTEX-M
- NUCLEO-F746ZG (Cortex-M7)
- NUCLEO-F446RE (Cortex-M4)
- nRF52840 (Cortex-M4)
- nRF5340 (Cortex-M33)
- LPCXpresso55S69 (Cortex-M33)
- STM32MP2 (Cortex-M33)
RISC-V
- RV64IMAC E51
- RV64GC U54
- MicroBlaze V
Containerization & virtualization
- Docker
- Podman
- Kubernetes
- QEMU
- VirtualBox
- KVM
- PANDA
Build Systems
- Make
- CMake
- Ninja
- Meson
- Bazel
Electronics Simulation
- LTspice
- PSIM
- MATLAB
- Simulink
PCB
- Altium Designer
- Kicad
CI/CD
- GitLab CI
- GitHub Actions
- Jenkins
- Gitea Actions
Databases
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
Experience
Lead Developer & Founder
Disquiet CoLab (Braga, Portugal)
January 2023 - Present
- Helping companies build connected, secure and integrated IoT products, by providing expertise in wireless, embedded and cloud development.
- Leading the technical development and strategic vision for innovative Embedded Systems projects.
- Conducting comprehensive penetration tests on IoT ecosystems, including hardware, firmware, communication protocols (BLE, Zigbee, MQTT), mobile applications, and cloud APIs.
- Employing hardware hacking techniques (JTAG, UART, SPI) to interface with device internals, extract firmware, and identify physical vulnerabilities.
- Performing firmware reverse engineering to discover hardcoded credentials, insecure data storage, and exploitable software flaws.
- Developing and implementing security solutions for resource-constrained embedded systems to protect against remote exploits and physical tampering.
- Designing and testing countermeasures against hardware attacks, including side-channel analysis (SCA) and fault injection (FI).
- Integrating secure boot mechanisms and Trusted Execution Environments to ensure firmware integrity and protect critical hardware and data.
- Architecting and securing robust over-the-air (OTA) update mechanisms to deploy patches and mitigate vulnerabilities on fielded devices.
- Developing and deploying machine learning models directly on edge devices for on-device inference.
- Optimizing complex neural networks using techniques like quantization and pruning to run efficiently on resource-constrained hardware.
- Leveraging Edge ML to build low-latency, low-bandwidth, and privacy-preserving solutions for real-time applications like object detection and predictive maintenance.
Embedded System Engineer
KCS IT (EFACEC) (Porto, Portugal)
January 2025 - Present
- Using Yocto to create a custom Linux distribution for i.MX 8M Plus SoC.
- Development of Linux Device Driver to implement Inter-Process Communication between the Linux Kernel, running on Arm Cortex-A53, and FreeRTOS, running on Arm Cortex-M7
- Development of a Linux Device Driver to implement Communication with a memory IC, using SPI protocol
Embedded Systems Research Engineer
Vortex CoLab (Porto, Portugal)
June 2023 - June 2024
- Created custom Linux distributions for a Microchip RISC-V SoC (Icicle Kit) using Buildroot and Yocto.
- Developed a C/C++ user-space application to control a matrix processor for running ML algorithms from frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and ONNX.
- Engineered an inference application for the matrix processor, designed to aggregate and process data from multiple sources, including cameras and sensors.
- Architected the application to run either as a standalone Docker container on the RISC-V SoC or as a client/server application.
- Developed the Python-based client application to send image data to the server, receive processed artifacts, and display the merged results.
Embedded Systems Engineer
ispace Inc. (Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
September 2022 - May 2023
- Managed responsibilities across Embedded Software, FPGA design, Embedded Linux, and Kernel driver development.
- Generated firmware for Xilinx Zynq-7000 boards using Yocto, U-Boot, and the latest Linux kernel.
- Implemented the real-time (PREEMPT_RT) patch for the Linux kernel.
- Designed, developed, and tested kernel drivers for interfacing with USB cameras, I2C sensors, and SPI sensors.
- Developed flight software in C, integrating Xilinx image processing libraries for FPGA optimization and performance.
- Utilized GitLab for version control and implemented CI/CD pipelines to automate build and test processes.
- Contributed to successful project evaluation phases by the European Space Agency (ESA) through expertise in FPGA, kernel, and flight software development.
Embedded Systems Engineer and Tester
DSR Corporation (Porto, Portugal)
August 2018 - August 2022
- Contributed to the certification of a commercial, safety-critical hard real-time operating system (RTOS) / Type 1 Hypervisor for applications in Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, and Medical fields.
- Developed and tested embedded software to ensure strict adherence to project specifications, certification standards, and software requirements.
- Implemented Continuous Integration (CI) development and runtime testing for the Hypervisor, configuring Virtual Machines (VMs), device drivers, and communication systems.
- Authored and executed automated tests, unit tests, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests using a dedicated Test Framework.
- Utilized C, Python, and Bash for software development and workload automation on a Linux host environment.
- Managed development lifecycle using GitLab (version control, code review) and Jira (issue/task tracking).
- Maintained requirement traceability and documentation using IBM Rational DOORS and SVN.
- Gained hands-on experience with key development tools including QEMU, GCC, GDB, and Make.
Embedded Systems Engineer
Altice Labs (Aveiro, Portugal)
January 2018 - August 2018
- Engineered a custom Linux Kernel driver in C to manage the PCI-express interface between an ARM Cortex-A53 processor and an FPGA.
- Enabled high-speed communication between the PCIe device and a user-space application responsible for managing fiber optic network flow control.
Embedded Systems Engineer
CTAG (Renault-Nissan) (Pontevedra, Spain)
January 2017 - December 2017
- The objective was the automation of door handles and ADAS cameras for a Renault‑Nissan electric vehicle.
- The project was developed in C and C++ and was responsible for the communication between the door handles and the ADAS cameras with the vehicle’s main computer.
- The firmware was using a bare‑metal approach, the microprocessor was a Cortex‑M4, and the HAL used IIC, UART, CAN bus, and LIN protocol.
Achievements
- Successfully launched the Disquiet CoLab official website.
- Successfully led the complete research and development lifecycle of a Radio-Frequency (RF) Jammer.
Hobbies
- Scuba Diving
- Trekking
- Camping
- Hiking
Interests
- Writing (Technical & Creative)
- Analog Photography
- Vinyl Collection