Modeling Software Engineer
Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino), California, United States
Hardware
Apple Silicon Engineering is seeking Hardware-minded Software engineers to build innovative tools to design the next generation of Apple’s world-leading systems-on-chip (SOCs)
Apple’s multi-billion-transistor Ax SOCs are the brain of every iPhone and iPad. The Analog Mixed-Signal (AMS) circuits connect them to the physical world via complex IPs such as SERDES for data communication, PLLs for clock generation, and sensors for measuring physical quantities.
Modeling Software Engineers bring a unique and versatile combination of software and hardware expertise. On their way from the designer's mind to becoming a piece of silicon, circuits take form in software. You will develop those software-representations of future hardware, and then make them real. This includes both the circuits themselves, and the underlying tools to enable hundreds more designers. We use modern software design methodology and apply it to AMS Hardware design.
If you've written software in modern, designer-centric languages then you understand how powerful and freeing it can be. And If you've designed circuits, you know how hard it can be. Think of the IC-design tool-stack by analogy: RTL is C code, Schematics and gates are assembly, and Layout is machine language.
Most IC design happens at one of those three layers, and most modern software design happens at a higher, more productive level. Tools handle the boring stuff and free designers to express their ideas. This is an opportunity to build that layer for IC hardware, and then use it to make the world's best mobile silicon.
Core responsibilities: Architect, develop and test software to capture the behavior and performance of AMS circuits.
SOME INDICATORS THAT YOU'D LOVE THIS JOB:
- You wish that designing circuits felt more like writing Python code
- Passion for building software to represent complex physical systems
- Avid usage of - or contributions to - open-source scientific computing software - especially packages for hardware design, signal processing, and/or data analysis
- An open mind about trying new things. Especially new tools
Key Qualifications
- Expert level in Python and/or C++
- Expert in Object-oriented Software (OOP)
- Knowledge of Database frontend and backend
- Familiarity with simulation tools for analog, digital, and/ or mixed-signal circuits
- Familiarity with popular digital design HDLs (Verilog and/or VHDL)
- Understanding of specs and requirements for AMS circuits is a plus
Description
Work on a simulation platform connecting multiple simulators to design analog mixed-signal IPs
Design and development of Scientific Software package/framework
Develop custom hardware description libraries, frameworks, and/or languages
Design digital, analog, and mixed-signal simulation software
Education & Experience
BSEE and preferred 10+ years of industry experience