This week, we lost one of the great minds of our generation. Daniel dedicated the last 14 years of his life to creating an academic model for real-time threading. This work eventually led to the Linux Kernel runtime verification (RV), providing a practical use case for these models. He authored RTLA (Realtime Latency Analysis tool) that provides analysis of real-time performance and debugging based on models generated from RV. This marked a revolutionary approach to kernel debugging that relied on BPF and tracers to build live models of the current system state, as opposed to the historical method of black-box statically generated system states (i.e., kernel dumps and trace-cmd). While his work focused on real-time models, RV's reach expanded to general models of the stock Linux kernel (PREEMPT RT disabled) and successfully replaced tools like trace-cmd and, in some use cases, kdump. Today, I want to not only mourn the kernel legend that he had become but also the man himself. I had the honor of working with him, and the joy he brought into each and every room cannot be overstated. He blended a unique combination of compassion and genius that is rarely seen in the field of computer science, particularly at the level he reached. I will forever miss our casual fireside chats, our light-hearted debates about the best Prosecco drinks, and much, much more. RIP Daniel, you will be deeply missed by everyone in the community.

This week, we lost one of the great minds of our generation. Daniel dedicated the last 14 years of his life to creating an academic model for real-time threading. This work eventually led to the Linux Kernel runtime verification (RV), providing a practical use case for these models. He authored RTLA (Realtime Latency Analysis tool) that provides analysis of real-time performance and debugging based on models generated from RV. This marked a revolutionary approach to kernel debugging that relied on BPF and tracers to build live models of the current system state, as opposed to the historical method of black-box statically generated system states (i.e., kernel dumps and trace-cmd). While his work focused on real-time models, RV's reach expanded to general models of the stock Linux kernel (PREEMPT RT disabled) and successfully replaced tools like trace-cmd and, in some use cases, kdump. Today, I want to not only mourn the kernel legend that he had become but also the man himself. I had the honor of working with him, and the joy he brought into each and every room cannot be overstated. He blended a unique combination of compassion and genius that is rarely seen in the field of computer science, particularly at the level he reached. I will forever miss our casual fireside chats, our light-hearted debates about the best Prosecco drinks, and much, much more. RIP Daniel, you will be deeply missed by everyone in the community.
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