Daniel Baluta
Software Engineer at Universitatea POLITEHNICA, Bucuresti
Bucharest, Romania
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolDaniel Baluta is a seasoned software engineer with 17 years of experience specializing in Linux kernel, embedded systems, and low-level audio firmware, currently maintaining the i.MX Linux kernel SOF driver at NXP Semiconductors in Bucharest. He’s an active upstream contributor to high-profile projects like the Linux kernel and Sound Open Firmware, with hands-on work porting drivers and enabling audio/DSP functionality for i.MX8 platforms. Beyond product engineering, he mentors new kernel contributors through Outreachy and GSoC and teaches operating systems and computer organization at University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, blending practical kernel hacking with pedagogy. His background spans sensor drivers, IIO, networking optimizations, and RTOS support (Zephyr), demonstrating deep hardware-software integration skills across ARM platforms. Notably, he combines firmware-level memory map and platform driver work with device-tree and reset-controller implementations, a mix that few embedded engineers master end-to-end.
17 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Colegiul National "Ionita Asan", CaracalPOLITEHNICA București National University for Science and Technology
Stackoverflow
11reputation
1kreached
0answers
2questions
Github Skills (26)
firmware10
embedded-language10
c1110
microcontroller10
linux-kernel10
zephyr10
c1710
audio10
device-tree10
low-level-programming10
dts10
rtos10
device-driver10
sys10
dt10
Programming languages (9)
Github contributions (5)
thesofproject/sof
Jan 2019 - Nov 2022
Sound Open Firmware
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:1077 reviews, 316 commits, 471 PRs in 3 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Daniel's contributions center on modifying and enhancing the "Sound Open Firmware" project, specifically concerning drivers and firmware-related aspects. The user removed unused fields, updated include files, and refactored existing code to align with the project's architecture. Furthermore, the user introduced support for the i.MX8, i.MX8X, and i.MX8M platforms by adding platform driver support and memory map initialization. The user is actively involved in low-level firmware development and porting.
firmwareaudiosounddsp
zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr
May 2021 - Mar 2026
Primary Git Repository for the Zephyr Project. Zephyr is a new generation, scalable, optimized, secure RTOS for multiple hardware architectures.
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:433 reviews, 27 PRs, 339 comments in 4 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Daniel primarily contributes to the Zephyr RTOS project, focusing on embedded systems and hardware-level interactions. Their work includes fixing compiler warnings, updating documentation, and preparing the i.MXRT6xx SOC for AMP support, moving code to organize the M33 core. They add nodes for SAI3, SDMA3, and PDM MICFIL to the DTS files and implement initial support for the NXP SDMA controller. They also introduce a new DAI driver for the NXP MICFIL PDM IP, demonstrating a strong understanding of hardware integration.
hardwarertosiotembeddedreal-time
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