Hello World — Why I Started This Blog
An introduction to this blog — who I am, what I plan to write about, and why I think it is worth documenting 30 years of systems architecture work.
After 30+ years of working on mission-critical systems — from early GSM handsets at Motorola to defence-grade SDR modems and industrial 5G networks at A*STAR — I have decided it is time to start writing things down properly.
This blog is partly a personal reference (I have lost count of the times I have rediscovered the same arcane detail buried in a project note), partly a way to give back to the community, and partly an experiment: can a systems architect who spent most of his career in research labs and defence programs write clearly enough for a public audience?
What to Expect
Posts will sit across a broad range of topics that reflect my actual day-to-day work and curiosity, roughly aligned to these categories:
| Category | What I’ll Cover |
|---|---|
| SDR | I/Q signals, OFDM modem design, FPGA waveform development, GNU Radio |
| 5G & Wireless | Private 5G, TSN over 5G, 5G NR air interface, LTE deep dives |
| Industrial Automation | IIoT connectivity, RAMI 4.0, edge computing, OPC-UA |
| Embedded Systems | Rust on bare metal, ESP32, ARM Cortex-M, RTOS patterns |
| Programming | Python for DSP, Rust, C/C++ systems programming |
| Linux | Kernel modules, device drivers, embedded Linux bringup |
| AI/ML | Edge inference on FPGA, signal classification with ML |
| 3D Printing | Electronics enclosures, PCB housings, DIY test fixtures |
The style will lean towards the technical — expect schematics, code snippets, waveform plots, and the occasional deep dive into a spec. I will try to keep posts self-contained but may split longer topics into series.
Background
I spent 25 years at A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) as a Senior Principal Research Engineer, followed by five years prior to that at Motorola’s Global Software Division. The A*STAR years covered a very wide remit: SDR platforms for defence UAVs, reconfigurable avionics with Airbus, industrial 5G and TSN systems for smart manufacturing, and multi-mode wireless terminals built in collaboration with DSO.
Since retiring from I2R in March 2025, I have had more time to tinker — Rust on microcontrollers, FPGA side-projects, a growing fleet of 3D printers, and catching up properly on modern AI/ML techniques. This blog documents that tinkering.
A Note on Style
I have been influenced by a handful of personal engineering blogs I deeply respect: ZipCPU for FPGA depth, Bunnie Huang’s blog for hardware narrative, WirelessPi for SDR rigour, and David Rowe’s site for open-source modem work.
I aim for that level of depth. We will see how close I get.
The first real post — on I/Q signals and SDR fundamentals — is already queued. Watch this space.