lowRISC/opentitan
Oct 2025 – Mar 2026
6 Months active
Languages Used
MarkdownPythonSystemVerilogC++YAMLAssemblyHJSONShell
Technical Skills
Build ToolsDocumentationPython scriptingScriptingSystem Administrationdata representation
Pascal Etterli
PROFILE
Pascal Etterli
Pascal Etterli contributed to the lowRISC/opentitan repository by developing and enhancing the OTBN cryptographic coprocessor, focusing on SIMD vectorization, memory expansion, and security hardening. He implemented vectorized big-number arithmetic in SystemVerilog and C++, integrated Masking Accelerator Interface support, and expanded DMEM/IMEM to enable post-quantum cryptography workloads. Pascal improved test automation and documentation using Python scripting, refining onboarding materials and developer tooling. His work addressed error handling, verification, and cross-component consistency, resulting in more robust hardware-software integration. The depth of his contributions is reflected in the breadth of RTL, DV, and simulation improvements, supporting maintainable and production-ready cryptographic features.
Overall Statistics
Feature vs Bugs
68%Features
Repository Contributions
60Total
Bugs
8
Commits
60
Features
17
Lines of code
12,456
Activity Months6
Your Network
124 peopleWork History
March 2026
19 Commits • 4 Features
Mar 1, 2026March 2026 delivered substantial SIMD acceleration and security hardening for OTBN, with MAI integration, expanded testing, and improved developer tooling and documentation. Key work spanned RTL integration for vectorized BN MAC, MAI simulator and offload demonstrations, and readability improvements across OTBN docs and IP READMEs. Security-focused refactors and DV enhancements strengthened reliability and maintainability for cryptographic workloads while expanding the development toolkit for faster iteration and regression coverage.
19 Commits • 4 Features
Mar 1, 2026March 2026 delivered substantial SIMD acceleration and security hardening for OTBN, with MAI integration, expanded testing, and improved developer tooling and documentation. Key work spanned RTL integration for vectorized BN MAC, MAI simulator and offload demonstrations, and readability improvements across OTBN docs and IP READMEs. Security-focused refactors and DV enhancements strengthened reliability and maintainability for cryptographic workloads while expanding the development toolkit for faster iteration and regression coverage.
March 2026
February 2026
19 Commits • 3 Features
Feb 1, 2026February 2026: Completed the OTBN 1.2.0 release featuring SIMD BN vectorization and BN ALU, expanded memory footprint for PQC workloads, and enhanced testing tooling and documentation for vectorized BN features. Delivered vectorized OTBN instructions and building blocks (vectorized adder, modulo result selector, vectorized shifter, and vector transposer) and integrated them into the RTL/OTBN flow, enabling scalable big-number operations. Expanded DMEM to 32 KiB and IMEM to 16 KiB with improved memory checks, segmentation, and TL-UL wiring to support PQC algorithms. Strengthened DV/test coverage with a generator-based approach for vectorized simulator tests and updated BN SIMD programmer’s docs. Fixed flag tracing to align with actual hardware, ensuring both flag groups are updated and traced as in hardware. Overall, the month delivered a production-ready SIMD-enabled OTBN, improved memory configurability, and richer developer tooling, accelerating PQC readiness and performance.
February 2026
19 Commits • 3 Features
Feb 1, 2026February 2026: Completed the OTBN 1.2.0 release featuring SIMD BN vectorization and BN ALU, expanded memory footprint for PQC workloads, and enhanced testing tooling and documentation for vectorized BN features. Delivered vectorized OTBN instructions and building blocks (vectorized adder, modulo result selector, vectorized shifter, and vector transposer) and integrated them into the RTL/OTBN flow, enabling scalable big-number operations. Expanded DMEM to 32 KiB and IMEM to 16 KiB with improved memory checks, segmentation, and TL-UL wiring to support PQC algorithms. Strengthened DV/test coverage with a generator-based approach for vectorized simulator tests and updated BN SIMD programmer’s docs. Fixed flag tracing to align with actual hardware, ensuring both flag groups are updated and traced as in hardware. Overall, the month delivered a production-ready SIMD-enabled OTBN, improved memory configurability, and richer developer tooling, accelerating PQC readiness and performance.
January 2026
15 Commits • 6 Features
Jan 1, 2026January 2026 (2026-01) OTBN-focused month delivering reliability, performance, and verification maturity across RTL, DV, and simulation models. Key improvements include controller timing optimizations, an API cleanup for the OtbnModel, a richer DMEM model with per-entry validity, and enhanced verification tolerance and trace matching to support fault-injection scenarios. Additional work improved documentation and cross-domain integration, enabling safer code changes, faster test cycles, and improved verification confidence.
15 Commits • 6 Features
Jan 1, 2026January 2026 (2026-01) OTBN-focused month delivering reliability, performance, and verification maturity across RTL, DV, and simulation models. Key improvements include controller timing optimizations, an API cleanup for the OtbnModel, a richer DMEM model with per-entry validity, and enhanced verification tolerance and trace matching to support fault-injection scenarios. Additional work improved documentation and cross-domain integration, enabling safer code changes, faster test cycles, and improved verification confidence.
January 2026
December 2025
2 Commits • 1 Features
Dec 1, 2025December 2025: Two high-impact changes in lowRISC/opentitan focused on improving test reliability and code clarity. Isolated hardware loop countermeasure testing from integrity checks to prevent undefined error propagation during tests, ensuring deterministic hw_err_o signaling; implemented in commit fb1b8c0a567a426bba9dd9eb499e1e35ad00921c. Unified naming scheme for predecoded signals to align with non-predecoded signals, improving readability and cross-component consistency; implemented in commit 05bda859a7dcda6d0e222de33bcdf985ccfb6023. Together, these updates reduce debugging time, enhance maintainability, and support safer OTBN feature rollout across RTL and test harnesses.
December 2025
2 Commits • 1 Features
Dec 1, 2025December 2025: Two high-impact changes in lowRISC/opentitan focused on improving test reliability and code clarity. Isolated hardware loop countermeasure testing from integrity checks to prevent undefined error propagation during tests, ensuring deterministic hw_err_o signaling; implemented in commit fb1b8c0a567a426bba9dd9eb499e1e35ad00921c. Unified naming scheme for predecoded signals to align with non-predecoded signals, improving readability and cross-component consistency; implemented in commit 05bda859a7dcda6d0e222de33bcdf985ccfb6023. Together, these updates reduce debugging time, enhance maintainability, and support safer OTBN feature rollout across RTL and test harnesses.
November 2025
2 Commits • 1 Features
Nov 1, 2025Month 2025-11: Delivered targeted fixes and documentation improvements in lowRISC/opentitan, focusing on the reliability of ISA references and clarity of OTBN usage guidance. These changes reduce broken links, accelerate developer onboarding, and clarify module references. Technologies demonstrated include documentation best practices, version control discipline, and cross-module coordination.
2 Commits • 1 Features
Nov 1, 2025Month 2025-11: Delivered targeted fixes and documentation improvements in lowRISC/opentitan, focusing on the reliability of ISA references and clarity of OTBN usage guidance. These changes reduce broken links, accelerate developer onboarding, and clarify module references. Technologies demonstrated include documentation best practices, version control discipline, and cross-module coordination.
November 2025
October 2025
3 Commits • 2 Features
Oct 1, 2025October 2025 focused on improving developer onboarding and documentation for OTBN and RISC-V toolchains. Delivered architecture-aware toolchain download support, documented installation requirements, and added a structured OTBN instruction encodings reference table. No major feature regressions were observed; documentation fixes addressed dead links and outdated guidance. Overall impact: reduces setup friction, accelerates onboarding, and improves maintainability. Technologies demonstrated include Python scripting for tooling, documentation tooling, and data-driven documentation structure.
October 2025
3 Commits • 2 Features
Oct 1, 2025October 2025 focused on improving developer onboarding and documentation for OTBN and RISC-V toolchains. Delivered architecture-aware toolchain download support, documented installation requirements, and added a structured OTBN instruction encodings reference table. No major feature regressions were observed; documentation fixes addressed dead links and outdated guidance. Overall impact: reduces setup friction, accelerates onboarding, and improves maintainability. Technologies demonstrated include Python scripting for tooling, documentation tooling, and data-driven documentation structure.
Activity
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Quality Metrics
Correctness95.0%
Maintainability88.6%
Architecture92.6%
Performance88.6%
AI Usage22.0%
Skills & Technologies
Programming Languages
AssemblyBazelC++HJSONMarkdownPythonShellSystemVerilogYAML
Technical Skills
Bazel build systemBuild ToolsC++ programmingContinuous integrationDocumentationFPGA designFPGA developmentPythonPython programmingPython scriptingRISC-V architectureRTL designSIMD programmingScriptingShell scripting
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