Robert M. Wolff
San Jose, CA
95126
Email: rwolff@wolffpak.com
Education
Purdue University,
W. Lafayette,
IN
B.S. in Computer/Electrical Engineering (BS CEE)
Graduation: May 1991
Emphasis in digital design and software engineering.
Qualifications: (Updated Feb 2006)
With nearly 19 years
of real-world work experience composed of 4 years while going to school and 15
years post-college work, my experiences are quite broad. Work experiences both
in large corporations and start-ups which have successfully gone IPO aid in my
ability to understand leadership, cooperation, strategy, and tactics in a
variety of circumstances. After teaching myself C, C++, Pascal, BASIC, 680x0
Assembly, 6502/10 Assembly, and 8051 Assembly, I took college classes in ForTran, LisP,
ProLog, and 6809 Assembly. My primary interests in
software have been digital Video, network
communications-based products, and user interface for both PC and consumer
based 10-foot UI’s. I have completed multiple projects in the Windows
environment using C++ object-oriented design under Microsoft’s Visual C++
family of compilers/suites, Visual Studio, and using MFC classes. Windows
programming targeting the Win32 APIs with a heavy emphasis on NT/2k/XP
compatibility have always been a focus as well. In the 95-97 years, my emphasis
was on GUI with C/C++ programming targeting primarily the Win32 environments of
Windows 95 and Windows NT. Much of 1997 however had been focused on Internet
research in streaming media protocols for audio and video as well as research
in the areas of cryptography and security. These lead to the areas of digital
broadcast media such as MPEG2, transport, streaming audio, video, and data.
Building infrastructures and architectures to support streaming media on
multiple platforms was a primary focus. Areas of particular hardware interest
for myself have always been video, networking protocols, security,
mass-storage, and FPGA/CPLD/Gate-Array design. In more recent years, my
experiences have shifted to that of management, team leading, technology
visionary, and ambassador to groups outside the US. I have worked with groups and
customers in Germany, Japan, Taiwan,
and Korea
both remotely as well as traveling abroad. Dealing with cultural, time-zone,
and technical issues while remaining a diplomat are skills I possess and am
accustomed to using. I take great pride in being able to fill all of these
roles completely as well as being characterized as a stand-up guy who understands
the value of morals and ethics in business.
Digital
5, Inc. (Oct 2004 – Current – Director of Technology): The Digital 5 product base is both server and client
based in consumer electronics – bringing photos, music, and video to the
living room through a home network either wired or wireless. This makes use of
my networking, crypto, CODEC, streaming, and PC experiences fully. As part of
the D5 engineering staff, I report to the VP of Engineering and dotted-line to
the President of the company in roles which are both nuts-and-bolts focused as
well as highly strategic in nature. My areas of value to the company are
multi-faceted in that I provide future vision into Engineering regarding next-gen platforms, new technologies to integrate, as well as
outward focused items such as partnerships with other companies, acting as the
company’s Microsoft single-point contact, speaking at events, being on
panel discussions, etc. The role of technology director at a small company like
D5 keeps me involved in marketing, sales, and engineering disciplines
simultaneously. My ability to have technical depth down to the code, technical
breadth across many facets of hardware and software, coupled with an ability to
speak comfortably in sales meetings (appropriately) as well as at public
speaking engagements makes me a solid team member in many ways. My roles in
engineering also include architecture review, Open Source policy setting,
license review, and even coding client and server-side code in the
crypto/security and manufacturing arenas.
Phoenix Technologies (July 2003 to Sep 2004 - Senior Director
of Engineering - Information Appliance and Media Platform Group): Phoenix Technologies (The old BIOS company) has an ongoing "reinvent itself" strategy
to become a software applications business. In the new portion of the company,
a portion of this strategy involves Internet technologies, web technologies,
Linux, and digital multimedia. It has been my charge to lead the innovation and
productization of these technologies to aid the
company in transitioning from a BIOS company to a software applications
company. Management of a dozen people, a few key projects/products, and a large
portfolio of acquired IP make up the bulk of this job. See "employment
information" below for further details
Sonic Solutions ((Continuation of RAVISENT
via acquisition) May 2002 to July 2003 - Director of Engineering - Advanced
Technology Group - Consumer Electronics):
In May of 2002, RAVISENT's DTV group was purchased by
Sonic Solutions. In this position I have been responsible for the consumer
electronics productization of the existing codebase ported to Linux as well as developing an
engineering team and products based on a newer lightweight codebase
for low-end consumer boxes running on RTOSs. Sonic's
ATG group is the core engineering group focused on DVD and DVD-offshoot
authoring technologies. Bring DVD authoring and burning to the settop market in various flavors and featuresets
is the overriding goal of ATG-CE. My role is a multifaceted one of direction,
vision, management of a group, as well as doing project management and
relationship management for major customers. DVD authoring in this realm
requires knowledge of the DVD-V spec, the -R/W or -VR spec for -RW media, the
+VR / +RW spec from Philips, and the new Video Format Recording Guidelines (VFR
/ VFRG) spec which dictates how TMP_VMGI functions for multisession
recording and editing of DVD media.
RAVISENT Technologies Inc. (2001-May 2002
- Vice President Engineering - PC DTV):
In January of 2001 I was promoted to VP. In this new position I have been
responsible for a broad array of areas in addition to my previous
responsibilities. On the engineering side, continuing to advance the DTV
products to better support Japan's
ARIB BS-digital HDTV standard with AAC audio has been a main focus. Adding to
the standard product offering a capability to protect Hollywood's content in the PC and also over
the PCI bus have been a major new pair of initiatives. Protection of content in
the PC involves obfuscation, authentication, and encryption capabilities. Much
of this work has been recently patented as well. PCI bus protection is being
implemented using the DTCP (Digital transmission copy protection / 1394-5C)
protection scheme as RAVISENT has become a licensee of DTLA. Relating to these
new technology areas are the political and business aspects of security. Being
actively involved at CPTWG, BPDG, and other security discussion groups has
given me insight into the inner workings of Hollywood's concerns surrounding securing
their content. The protection of both the PCI bus and the
content once inside the PC's main memory have been integrated into our
DTV product offerings. More details on these technologies cannot be given at
this time as they are still under development and under NDA. Additionally,
responsibility for contract review, San
Jose site management, managerial conduit to
headquarters, and one of 3 engineering heads in charge of making future
direction, hiring, and budgetary decisions.
RAVISENT Technologies Inc. (2000-2001 -
Director DTV Products): In 2000 my
engineering and management role was expanded to a business unit breadth. In
this position I was responsible for all digital television products from
engineering, QA, marketing, product management, and sales as well as being
responsible for the monetary metric for each quarter. While adding this
responsibility I was still the chief architect for all DTV future products in
terms of software architecture at the high level and also having the vision to see
what would be necessary and common amongst DTV products in the 2 year
timeframe. Additions to DTV products have been satellite support, EPG (DVB-SI
and PSIP), IP multicasting via MPE and datapiping,
ATVEF data client support, digital timeshifting (DVR/PVR
for digitized streams), pure soft MPEG decode on Pentium 4 class machines, AAC
audio codec (ISO 13818-7) support, and providing industry support for digital
television in terms of consultive works, advice and
vision.
RAVISENT Technologies Inc. (1999-2000 -
Manager - Systems & Architecture):
In 1999, a change in focus was made from being the sole contributor in the
broadcast media architecture to being the manager of a growing group of serious
systems architects. The founding of the "systems & architecture"
group has given latitude to this group's ability to construct not only digital
broadcast media infrastructure, but also needed toolsets and base classes for
analysis, debug and research company-wide. In addition to a focus on software
design and implementation, this new group has caused a need for my
concentration to be split into business development, technology partnerships,
external technology evaluation (technical due-diligence), technology transfer
and valuation of external technologies, etc. External corporate investment is
many times based on core technology and in my job I am frequently called upon
to talk to the efforts in R&D for areas which will not blossom into
revenue-generation for at least 12-18 months. In this industry, this is "long
term research".
RAVISENT Technologies Inc. (1997-1999 -
Principal Engineer - Digital Broadcast Media): RAVISENT started as Quadrant International (QI) and became (briefly) Divicore Inc. prior to going IPO as RAVISENT Technologies
in July of 1999. During the first year, my main responsibilities were R&D
oriented including the building of a technology relationship between a DSS
broadcast receiver card vendor, DirecTV, and myself. The technology software
core was to take audio, video, and data streams which were in parallel and to
"remultiplex" these streams back into a
serial MPEG2 "program stream" to be fed into a hardware (or software)
MPEG2 decoder or to be sent to disk or tape for later retrieval and/or
playback. This "remux" core went through
DirecTV's certification labs with 95+% passage. Final
problems were not worked out due to the program being cut by DirecTV/Hughes
before it's getting to market. Other technology cores have included the
demonstration of software decode of Echostar/Dishnetwork
MPEG2 streaming audio/video content. MPEG-2 transport stream splitting became a
major thrust of the 1998/1999 timeframe as both PC and settop
projects found needs for a robust tuning, PID-selection, EPG, and data
capability. Harnessing the incoming transport stream is a key necessary
mechanism involved in a robust systemwide solution to
broadcast media. Additional responsibilities included technology demonstrations
at shows such as COMDEX, WinHEC, IDF, CES and others.
Deep understanding has been gained in all of the following areas: ISO 13818,
ISO 11172, MPEG2, MPEG2 Audio, MPEG1 Audio - layers 1, 2, and 3 (MP3),
Transport, multiplexing, demultiplexing, DirecTV DSS,
DVB, ATSC HDTV, PSIP, DVB-SI, Microsoft's Broadcast PC & DShow, demux and routing, tuning
models, and digital input/output switching. Additionally, experience and
knowledge has been gained in the areas of TCP/IP, DSMCC, ATVEF, and multicast
IP. I also have multiple patents pending in the areas of high speed digital
media harnessing and optimal handling in software of such media.
MediaMesh (Co-Founder/Chief Technologist): MediaMesh was a small
non-funded startup who's concept in 1997 was in the
area of creating a "settop PC" built around
the concept of advertising-model-revenue-generation in order to make the box
low-cost or free. It was my responsibility to create a software infrastructure
and server-farm hierarchy which would support 10's of thousands to 10's of
millions of users in a flexible, secure, and geographically smart way. This
company was evaluated by a few technology "seed funds" for its
viability as well as being evaluated by AOL for inclusion in future products.
Due to a lack of funding in a timely manner, the core of 7
people were forced to disband in search of employment.
Samsung R&D center (SISA MTC): Samsung Information Systems America is a research subcompany of Samsung Electronics Corp. The Multimedia
Technology Center (MTC) is an R&D division whose prime direction is to lead
Samsung into the new millennium of digital video, audio, and data. My
experiences at SISA include 3D graphics boards for PCI plug-n-play systems,
writing some OLE2 code in Microsoft Visual C++ 4.x for Windows 95 and Windows
NT 3.5x and 4.x. Heading up a software team involved in the Microsoft
Interactive TV effort in 1995/96 timeframe. Approximately 40% of my time at
SISA is spent in the area of Internet technology research. Research areas
include streaming protocols and security technologies (encryption, decryption,
and signatures). I have also been a chief GUI programmer for Samsung in their
endeavor into the DirecTV DSS market. Other projects include the Microsoft
Broadcast PC and pushing the leading-edge of video and audio streaming
technology with respect to Windows NT servers. Building a bank of highly
available NT servers has been a great experience as well as an enormous win-win
for the corporate IS department as they come up the learning curve of Windows
NT servers. Building, running, and administering an NT webserver
has given SISA the ability to have online "live" documentation with
access controls, authoring access control, and rich multimedia content.
Engineering notes, schematics, source code and digitized product pictures are
all stored and available on my Intranet web server.
AMD:
Experiences at AMD have been quite diverse ranging from software development in
C++, build management, librarian functions, network/system administration on
Windows NT systems, C++ Windows programming, GUI design and development, 32bit
migration of over 1million lines of C code, and helping to define and critique
new silicon architecture proposals for future generations of MACH products at
AMD. In recent months, I have been involved in detailed spec-writing for this
new family of devices so that an external software company can write CAD/CAE
"fitters" for hardware designers to use in the field. This has
involved writing specs, reviewing specs, presenting complex technical data and
ideas to the third-party company, and working closely with the external company
to insure they are on-track in their implementation at all times. Project
management has become a large part of the job during this phase of development.
Most recently, I have been writing a Win32 application for test engineering so
that they may "route" a complex new device before the third-party
software is complete and before silicon is complete. This program embodies a
very complex user interface as well as multiple DLL’s. AMD has also
provided me with a wealth of experience in project management and interpersonal
communications as well as honing my skills in problem solving and diagnosis.
Patents (Inventor and/or co-inventor on the following USPTO patents)
6,373,898 - High speed start code scanner
6,366,970 - Handling high speed streaming data
6,288,716 - Using browsers for command and control of home network consumer
devices
6,243,707 - Building home network macros on the fly
5,987,625 - Testing of network bootable devices
5,946,050 - Multimedia keyword listener device
5,655,072 - Test checkpointing for new devices in
PC's using plug and play
Other Employment Information:
08/93 to 06/95 Full-Time Sr. Software
Engineer - Advanced Micro Devices
06/92 to 08/93 Full-Time Design Engineering - Great Valley Products
06/91 to 06/92 Full-Time Applications Engineering - Cypress Semiconductor
05/89 to 5/91 part-time during school. fulltime during
breaks - Senior Design Engineer - Applied Physics, Inc.
05/87 to 09/87 Full-Time Co-Op Engineer - Diconix,
Inc (A Kodak Company)
References available upon
request.