Saravana Kannan

Software Engineer

San Diego, California, United States20 yrs 8 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

20+ years in Linux kernel development
Led major kernel upgrades for Pixel phones
Expert in hardware-software partitioning

Stackforce AI infers this person is a highly skilled Linux kernel developer with expertise in mobile technology and embedded systems.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Linux KernelDevice DriversAlgorithmsEmbedded Systems

Other Skills

DeviceTreefw_devlinkCPU frequency scalingkernel upgradecodebase consolidationpower estimationAndroid ecosystemGKITech LeadKernel binary shippingCPUfreqdevfreqscaling technologiesRTOSEmbedded Software

About

With 20+ years in Linux kernel development, I've designed and developed across many kernel areas. I'm the kernel maintainer for fw_devlink and co-maintainer for DeviceTree. My deep hardware understanding not only helps me excel at bridging communication between hardware and software teams, but also enables me to architect the most effective hardware-software partitioning for peak system performance.

Experience

20 yrs 8 mos

Total Experience

6 yrs 9 mos

Average Tenure

4 mos

Current Experience

Google

2 roles

Senior Staff Software Engineer

Promoted

Apr 2023 – Nov 2025 · 2 yrs 7 mos

Linux kernel maintainer for fw_devlink and virtual-cpufreq (host CPU frequency scaling for VMs), and co-maintainer for DeviceTree.
Drove the first-ever in-market major kernel upgrade for the Pixel phone series and consolidated the codebase for Pixel 6 through 9 series, Tablet, and Fold onto a single Linux 6.1 kernel.
Wattson: Estimating CPU power usage purely from traces and doing it well enough to match high-end lab hardware, while also providing actionable thread level power estimates.

Linux kernelDeviceTreefw_devlinkCPU frequency scalingkernel upgradecodebase consolidation+2

Staff Software Engineer

Jan 2019 – Apr 2023 · 4 yrs 3 mos

Shipped a single core kernel binary across the Android ecosystem. Tech Lead/Manager for GKI on Pixel phone, Pixel Watch/Wear, Chromecast w/GTV/Nest, Android Go and more.

Linux kernelAndroid ecosystemGKITech LeadKernel binary shippingEmbedded Systems

Qualcomm innovation center inc

4 roles

Principal Engineer

Promoted

Nov 2018 – Jan 2019 · 2 mos

Linux kernel developer. CPUfreq, devfreq, efficient scaling of CPU/cluster, DDR, Cache/CCI, bus, etc.
https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/kernel/msm-4.9/log/?h=msm-4.9&qt=author&q=skannan
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm-3.18/log/?h=msm-3.18&qt=author&q=skannan
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm-3.10/log/?h=msm-3.10&qt=author&q=skannan
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=msm-3.7
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=msm-3.4
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=msm-3.0
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=msm-2.6.38
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=android-msm-2.6.35
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=android-msm-2.6.32
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=android-msm-2.6.29
https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?qt=author&q=skannan&h=android-msm-2.6.27