# The Pragmatism of Hubris

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2021-12-14
- Length: 2h 03m
- Episode: 26
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/71eba55b

## Summary

Cliff Biffle, principal engineer at Oxide Computer Company, explains the origins of Hubris, an embedded operating system designed for Oxide's rack-scale computers, drawing on his prior experience with Project Loon at Google. The team evaluated existing options like Tock and QNX but chose to build Hubris in Rust to ensure memory safety and value alignment, leveraging a software-hardware co-design approach to bypass the risks of secure FPGAs. Key technical decisions include using a minimal kernel, self-describing build archives, and advanced debugging tools like Humility to manage complex embedded systems without dynamic loading or self-hosting constraints.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=0) Introduction: Twitter Spaces technical difficulties and Cliff Biffle's late arrival
- [8:41](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=521) Cliff Biffle's prehistory: Project Loon firmware and the need for high reliability
- [14:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=863) Evaluating Tock and QNX: Why existing OS options failed to meet Oxide's needs
- [22:43](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=1363) Value alignment: The Node.js divorce and choosing Rust for Hubris
- [28:59](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=1739) Secure FPGAs and RISC-V: The pivot to hard logic and STM32/LPC55 platforms
- [36:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=2196) Microkernel history: L4, Mach, and the influence of Jochen Liedtke's work
- [50:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=3049) Debugging Hubris: Semihosting, ITM, and the origin of Humility
- [1:10:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=4227) Build systems: Self-describing archives, Cargo xtask, and cross-platform development
- [1:25:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=5101) Rust in Hubris: IDLs, Ozymandias, and code generation with build.rs
- [1:51:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2021-12-14-the-pragmatism-of-hubris#t=6694) Software-hardware co-design: Counteracting Conway's Law and debugging tools

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Microcontrollers & dev platforms](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/microcontrollers-and-platforms)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Oxide Computer Company (company)
- Hubris (product)
- Humility (product)
- Project Loon (product)
- Tock (product)
- QNX (product)
- RISC-V (chip)
- STM32 (chip)
- LPC55 (chip)
- LLVM (tool)
- Cargo (tool)
- DWARF (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Finding Hardware Flaws with Laura Abbott](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2022-05-23-finding-hardware-flaws-with-laura-abbott) (The Amp Hour)
- [342: That Girl's Brain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2020-08-27-342-that-girls-brain) (Embedded.fm)
- [Exploring Rust for Embedded Systems with Philip Markgraf](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2024-10-30-exploring-rust-for-embedded-systems-with-philip-markgraf) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)
- [290: Rule of Thumbs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2019-06-06-290-rule-of-thumbs) (Embedded.fm)
- [256: Agglomeration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2018-08-16-256-agglomeration) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

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