Antonio Borneo enhanced the reliability of watchdog timers in the flipperdevices/u-boot repository by developing a feature that ensures watchdogs are properly started and pinged during boot, even when autostart is disabled. He introduced the wdt_set_force_autostart helper and implemented a runtime check using SMCWD_GET_TIMELEFT to maintain active watchdogs across all boot stages. Working primarily in C, Antonio applied his expertise in driver development and embedded systems to consolidate watchdog management, reducing the risk of unwanted resets during early initialization. His focused, in-depth contribution addressed a nuanced reliability issue, demonstrating a strong grasp of embedded watchdog timer integration and boot process hardening.