Joseph L Larabell

Computer Software Engineer

Contact me at http://larabell.org/contact/ for more information.

About Me

Computer software engineer with background in hardware design (discrete component level, not ASIC) specializing in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) application development and support.

US citizen currently residing in Tokyo, Japan. Willing to travel but not to relocate.

Native English fluency and reasonably OK in conversational-level Japanese (JLPT2).

Experience:
6.5 years in Hardware Design
10.0 years in Applications Engineering
27.5 years in Software Development
Objective:
Development and/or support work in Electronic Design Automation
Temporary and/or part-time work OK (contract work also OK)
Interested in assignment in Tokyo area or remote work

Employment History

2006 ~ present
Principal Engineer
Siemens EDA / Mentor Graphics

Worked on coverage reporting and testplan tracking tools. Designed and implemented regression management and failure analysis products. Served as principal architect for client-server metrics-based verification tracking product.

1998 ~ 2006
Senior Applications Engineer
Synopsys

Application support and home-office liason for VCS simulation products. Designed initial testbench architecture for key Vera customers. Designed and implemented a graphical stimulus editor as a one-off for a specific Vera customer.

1996 ~ 1998
Senior Software Engineer / Software Engineering Manager
Ikos Systems, Inc.

Designed and implementated Verilog-to-Ikos model translation product. Managed work on existing memory model generation product. Worked with CTO to create accelerator -based solutions for several corner-case simulation model scenarios.

1995 ~ 1996
Applications Engineer
(contract)
Itochu Technoscience, K.K.

Pre-sales and customer support for Ikos digital accelerator and Verilog/VHDL simulators. Implemented ASIC simulation cell and memory libraries for key customers.

1993 ~ 1995
Manager, CAE Support
Zuken-Redac, Japan
(formerly Racal-Redac)

Responsible for support and user migration for CADAT simulation product for Japanese customers after product end-of-life announcement. Provided liason between support staff in Japan and development staff in US/UK.

1988 ~ 1993
Senior Systems Analyst
Racal-Redac, Inc.
(formerly HHB Systems)

Continued to support ASIC library generation tools originally produced at FutureNet (see below). Worked on major enhancements to CADAT digital simulatior including design of second-generation ASIC timing database schema.

1987 ~ 1988
Contract Programmer
1986 ~ 1987
Software Engineer
Data I/O - FutureNet Division

Designed and implemented “Acculib” database-driven ASIC library generation tools. Supported CADAT simulator running on co-processor card for Windows platform.

1987 ~ 1987
Contract Programmer
1986 ~ 1987
Contract Programmer (part time)
Teledyne Systems

Designed and implemented a test-interface scripting language for production test and field fault isolation. Supported real-time IBM-PC based debugger used in development of MIL-1750 computer. Wrote interface between existing hardware debug package and a logic analyzer. Designed and coded a screen handling package to consolidate and speed-up screen access for debugger software.

1985 ~ 1986
Principal Member of the Programming Staff
United Technologies, Lexar Division

Bug fixes and enhancements to O/S for PBX system, including support for new disk-based file system.

1982 ~ 1985
Senior Design Engineer
United Technologies, Lexar Division

Designed and implemented cross-switch fiber-optic interface for PBX switch. Managed construction of the largest PBX switch the company ever sold as a one-off for a specific customer.

1985 ~ 1986
Contract Programmer (part time)
Questechnologies, Inc.

Developed “Sidekick-like” desktop utility program for bundling with IBM-PC clones.

1984 ~ 1985
Contract Programmer (part time)
(full time July through October 1984)
Linknet Technologies, Inc. (now defunct)
Digital Matrix Communications, Inc
C-Lan Technologies, Inc.

Designed inexpensive low-speed network for IBM-PC. Wrote Z80 firmware for IBM plug-in card, network controller, and communication server. Specified “C” language utility program for mail and file access. Wrote hardware simulator module to allow concurrent hardware/software development.

1981 ~ 1982
Design Engineer
Transaction Technology, Inc.

Designed and implemented memory controller for a 14-port memory subsystem to be used as part of a new banking back-office minicomputer system.

1980 ~ 1980
Design Engineer
Magnavox, Inc. GPS Division

Designed memory / external interface card for a series of miltary GPS receivers.

1978 ~ 1980
Member of the Technical Staff
Hughes Aircraft Co, El Segundo, CA

Designed microprocessor-controlled self-test board for radar signal processing system. Wrote regression tests for and debugged hardware issues in F15/F18 radar signal processor.

Education

B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, June 1978
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Grade Point Average: 3.35/4.00

Honor Societies:
Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi
Logic Families:
TTL, CMOS, ECL
CAD/CAE Tools:
CADAT, SilcSyn, Intelligen, Verilog-XL, Ikos, VCS, Questa-Sim
Language Fluency:
C++, C, Verilog, VHDL, Vscript, PL/M, Perl, Basic, Fortran
Assembly Languages:
6800, 6502, 1802, 8080, 8085, Z80, 8048/49, 8086/88, 80286/386/486

Personal Data

Date of Birth: 2 March 1956 (Age: 66)
Willing to travel/relocate
References available on request

Content last updated on: 18 June 2022

An abbreviated version of this resume is also available as a PDF file.

If you are reading a copy of this resume that was stored on a retrieval system, I would
appreciate it if you would get the latest version from the following site:
http://larabell.org/resume/
Current information regarding my availability can be found at:
http://larabell.org/wogjob/

Latest Posts

Effortless Magick

It’s funny how, every once in a while, if you listen to the subtle messages unfolding around you on a constant basis, you pick up on a pattern of small bits of information that seem to build into something substantial. That happened to me recently on the general topic of effortlessness. Like many would-be adepts, I have a number of daily practices that I fit into various parts of the day. Sometimes they pay off with feelings of increased awareness or energy but, if I were being totally honest, most of the time they feel like drudge-work… a part of the day that occurs more out of habit than anything else… with the basic idea being one of consistency rather than joy.

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Published: Dec 7, 2019

Out with the Old...

I was listening to the latest Sam Harris podcast today and ran across an interesting take on something that should be familiar to most Western Ceremonial Magicians. Eric Weinstein was talking about finding meaning in license plate numbers as he drives around (don’t we all do that when we first start on the Path?) and the way he explained it was:

"...it's important to notice what it feels like to discern meaning where there is no meaning... it's important to get in touch with the "as if madness" experience in order to guard against madness; so I'm hoping to suspend my insistence on Truth for periods of time..."

I’m not sure about the connection with madness, per-se… and I’m wondering if that wasn’t just a ploy designed to wrap up the thought before getting interrupted. I realized when he said that that another good reason for discerning meaning where there is none is to prevent intellectual ossification (my term… it didn’t appear in the podcast, as far as I know). The belief that one particular way of looking at things must serve as the filter through which we see everything else from that point forward seems to be common in most philosophies and pretty much all religions. Adherence to a strict theology makes us less able to evaluate contrary ideas on their own merit. On the other hand, by constantly playing fast and loose with one’s synaptic network, so to speak, one might stand a chance of maintaining enough mental flexibility to recognize a true Epiphany when it finally does come.

It’s ironic that avoiding intellectual ossification was one of the main points that Sam was trying to convey just moments earlier… that there’s no logical reason to use one or more points-of-view which happen to have been elaborated thousands of years ago over new points-of-view developed by one’s own reason in the present time. Of course, that’s easier said than done and when most people start on any sort of Philosophical or Spiritual Path, they’re usually not capable of the kind of deep reasoning that would discern the “true meaning” of the Universe at first glance… so we may need to use ancient philosophy and religion as a crutch for a while… in order to bootstrap our thinking to the point where we can reason with some depth on the Universe and our purpose within it. But I expect that we all have to eventually drop the rhetoric and design our own systems based on First Principles.

Read more

Published: Jan 8, 2018

Misunderstanding Multitasking

I was listening to an interview with the authors of the new book The Distracted Mind on NPR this morning and they touched on a favorite pet peeve of mine that centers on a basic misunderstanding of the term multitasking. According to Wikipedia, the first published use of the term “multitask” appeared in an IBM paper describing the capabilities of the IBM System/360 in 1965. Is is only recently that the term has been used in the common vernacular to refer to the apparent ability of humans to “concentrate” on more than one task at a time.

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