HP ML150 ISS Technology Update, Volume 7, Number 9 - Page 6

ISS Technology Update Volume 7, Number 9 Meet the Expert-Mark Fletcher (confessions of an ISS "hitman") Mark Fletcher is an HP Industry Standard Server (ISS) systems engineer who supports hardware platform teams by solving problems that normally occur during development and test cycles. That's the answer Mark would give if you asked him what he does. If you asked Kevin Depew, Mark's manager, he would say that "Mark is the key technical resource in solving difficult issues on both in-production and new development platforms. Mark has the broad knowledge of hardware, firmware, and software necessary to investigate and determine the root cause of the toughest problems." Whenever a major product issue arises and the debug effort appears difficult, engineering teams call in Mark Fletcher. Mark has led debug efforts on countless critical issues over the last several years. He works closely with other engineers and with HP's development partners, such as Intel and Broadcom, to resolve the most complex issues. According to Kevin, "Mark can always be counted on to find the root cause of any issue because he always pushes for a complete understanding of the problem rather than accepting a quick or incomplete work-around. In addition, Mark applies his knowledge and experience in dealing with complex issues to assist the development teams in making wise architecture decisions for new products. Mark's knowledge and expertise are important resources that allow HP to ship and support its ProLiant server products. Mark and his wife Elizabeth have been married for 10 years. His hobbies include building radio-controlled (RC) model planes, cycling, photography, coffee roasting, and dog training. Below are excerpts from an interview with Mark. Name: Mark Fletcher Title: ISS Systems Engineer Years at HP: 14 University/Degree • Angelo State University, BS Applied Physics, 1986 • University of Texas at El Paso, MS Electrical Engineering, 1990 U.S. Patent: • Patent # 6311217: Method and apparatus for improved cluster administration. Ehlinger; Early David (Houston, TX), Fletcher; Mark F. (Houston, TX) Technical Paper: Solving impossible problems in the 21st century-debug requirements for the future The way Kevin described your skills, you could be considered an ISS hitman. Do you confess? Mark: If I told you, I would have to ... Why did you decide to become an engineer? Mark: Growing up, I was always interested in puzzles and logic problems, so I have always loved the challenge of working through complicated problems. As a teenager, I started working on cars out of necessity. That led to a profession as an auto mechanic (ASE certified Master technician-1986), which I did full time throughout most of my college career. Engineering was something that just seemed to be a natural fit. What is your favorite project or research? Mark: For the last several months, I have been driving and defining requirements to processor vendors to add specific debug capabilities into future platforms. This could give us the capability to do low-level debugs, such as bus trace analysis, to determine the root causes of difficult issues. Are you an advocate for customers in the design of HP products? Mark: Yes, I believe that every server feature we offer can be tied back to customer feedback at one time or another. It is important that we ask ourselves what benefits the customers will receive for every single step of our development processes. Ultimately, we should only add features that directly impact customers. 6