Björn Töpel on Building the Future of RISC-V Linux at Rivos

After years of shaping Linux networking performance at Intel and building core libraries at Skype, Björn Töpel is now channeling that experience into Rivos.

Björn is part of Rivos’ Kernel, Virtualization, and Simulation teams, where he works on a mix of feature enablement and quality assurance. On a day-to-day basis, he adds missing capabilities to Linux and reviews contributions from across the ecosystem. Recently, he has also been lending his expertise to simulation, helping emulate parts of the hardware. “It’s exciting to help build leading-edge software,” Björn said. “I’m constantly learning which is valuable as a developer.”

Björn began his career working on mobile systems at smaller companies in Sweden before moving into the networking space, eventually serving as a Core Library Developer at Skype. Later in his career, Björn spent over five years at Intel focused on Linux Kernel and networking performance, contributing to Kernel development and leading work in the Linux networking stack.

Along the way, he became increasingly interested in the RISC-V ecosystem, contributing to the open-source community and exploring how Linux could be adapted. When a friend from the RISC-V community joined Rivos in late 2022 and encouraged Björn to take a closer look, he decided it was the perfect opportunity to work on RISC-V full-time. 

For Björn, Rivos offers the perfect middle ground between large-company structure and startup agility. “At bigger companies, you stay within your compartment and get labeled as a certain type of expert,” he explained. “At Rivos, I have the freedom to explore different areas.”

Even though he works remotely from Sweden, Björn feels fully connected to the company. “Rivos is like one big team that I feel part of, and there’s always someone available,” he shared. “It doesn’t feel like I’m remote, even though I am.” He also appreciates the company’s culture of openness and collaboration. 

When Björn isn’t advancing the Linux stack, he enjoys staying active and cooking. He also loves tinkering with hardware projects at home. “I’ve always had a hard time sitting still,” he laughed.