- An association of professional engineers specializing in hardware and embedded software design, implementation, and testing.
Company History
EQware's main principals worked together for years before EQware was created. Their history includes integrated circuit design and testing, extensive embedded firmware, sophisticated wireless protocols, and real-time systems development at a local Pacific-Northwest company. But as the century came to an end, so did this Pacific-Northwest company, and so the these principals moved on to work with various new technologies.
After a few years of contracting for others, EQware's founder decided to work for himself in January of 2003, as "EQware Engineering". Over the next year, he worked as a consultant while continuing to learn the details of running a small business. In 2004, he finally incorporated EQware Engineering, Inc. During 2005, two long time associates joined the company. These, the "Three Amigos", became the main principals of EQware. Then in 2006, EQware hired a part-time office manager to handle bills and payroll, freeing the gang to devote themselves entirely to engineering projects.
Throughout the years, EQware has developed strong relationships with many outstanding independent contractors. Almost every project included some of these associates, allowing EQware to tackle more and larger projects. Over the years, EQware has added to its internal staff with caution and selectivity. These include long-time associates turned employees and a few college graduates, each from the top of their class. As a result, EQware created an outstanding corporate dynamic, integrating mature, experienced engineers with fresh, cutting-edge tech talent.
While EQware is glad to put out excellent work for all our clients, we are particularly proud of and remain committed to continuing the work that improves the world around us:
Green Technology — EQware has a long history of environmentally friendly technology projects. Our engineers have helped provide important expertise on projects which have been instrumental in making alternative energy sources feasible and function smoothly in a world that continues to increase in complexity.
STEM Education — Many of EQware's projects have been related to products for STEM education. Our engineers have put thousands of hours into developing and improving firmware for devices throughout the classroom. We're proud to be a part of devices have assisted students in hundreds of schools and universities.
Accessibility Technology — At EQware, we firmly believe in products which allow for people with disabilities to participate in education and the sciences, and we have always been eager to work on such projects. Some of our proudest work has been in in this area, particularly for the blind / vision impaired community.
Leadership
EQware is made up of a tight team of engineers and a strong collaboration with some of the best contractors in the trade. All EQware engineers are able to work together as a unit as well as on their own. In working with EQware, you will quickly realize the talent, experience, and excitement of our staff.
Bruce Gudmundsson
Bruce, a native Icelander, became interested in computers and electronics in high school with Commodore computers, becoming serious about programming in various languages while in college. After immigrating to the US in the late 80s, he started his first embedded programming job at a small company doing RF Spectrum Analysis and monitoring, then in 1992, he joined AMI as a SCSI FW and later BIOS developer, eventually moving to Oregon and joining Intel Corporation for a 19 year stretch in various roles including motherboard BIOS architecture, CPU silicon validation, and server platform DDR memory reference code for various SDRAM technologies. At Intel, Bruce developed expertise in debug, x86 Assembly, C, pre-Silicon Simulation, Silicon Validation, Project Management, Test Driven Design, and general management to name a few.
Bruce joined EQware in 2019, developing expertise in various ARM based embedded chips from NXP, Silicon-Labs and STMicro, with a focus on Low-power, BLE, and custom RTOS Operating systems.
Bruce is known for his no-nonsense direct approach to leadership, mentoring and problem-solving, taking on any role needed to meet EQware clients additional needs like team-development, program-management, Scrum-lead, etc.
He enjoys the great outdoors, camping, kayaking, and maintaining trails for his favorite hobby of mountain-biking.
Mark Wattier
Mark Wattier has been working on computers since he got access to a teletype in 8th grade in 1976, dreaming of an Altair or IMSAI of his own. He got an internship at Tektronix while in high school and finally was able to work on hardware and software together.
A long career has taken him from field repair work, to manufacturing, to installing servers and networks around the world, through backend software engineering, and back to the hardware - software interface.
Mark is a native of the Portland area and is very much at home in the heavily wooded areas of the Pacific Northwest. As a member of The Trailkeepers of Oregon, he enjoys roaming the woods and studying the geology and botany of the area. Mark is also a father and enjoys sharing these experiences with his daughter.
Stephen Robinson
When he was 10 years old, Stephen Robinson found himself in front of a TRS-80 Color Computer— the ensuing exploration would never truly end. Stephen continues to explore technologies of all shapes and sizes, from Xeon Phi clusters to tiny RISC-V computing, and everything in between.
Stephen graduated Maxima Cum Laude from the University Portland in Computer Science, taking a particular interest in the compilers class. When EQware president Dennis O'Brien reached out to the compilers professor to ask if he had any star students to recommend, there was no hesitation. Soon after, Stephen found himself fitting right in at EQware.
Stephen's various interests from scores of hobby projects and work experiences has resulted in a wide assortment of skills and expertise. He is as comfortable coding a website backend in C# as he is an OS in assembly. But ultimately, his favorite continues to be embedded work.
A Portland native, Stephen has stayed in the area, and is now exploring a new life as a father of three. He continues to enjoy tinkering with projects, and can be found in the garage working away on the next new thing.