Embedded CPU Performance Engineer, Platform Architecture

Apple Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Job summary

Apple Inc. is seeking an Embedded CPU Performance Engineer to help define CPUs for embedded applications running across iPhone, iPad, Mac and more. You will push power-efficient performance in collaboration with micro-architecture and RTL teams.

You will model solutions balancing performance, power, and area, correlate RTL with CPU simulators, and analyze workloads to identify bottlenecks. Strong C/C++ OO skills and Python/Perl scripting are required.

Qualifications

• Experience in CPU and SOC architecture and micro-architecture.
• Experience with performance simulation environments.
• Object-oriented programming skills in C/C++.
• Experience in a scripting language such as Perl or Python.

Responsibilities

• Define CPUs designed for embedded applications across Apple products, balancing performance, power, and area.
• Collaborate with CPU designers to model and implement new ideas and features.
• Correlate RTL with CPU performance simulators to validate targets.
• Analyze workloads to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.
• Support data-driven decisions within the CPU architecture and performance team.

Skills

CPU and SOC architecture

Performance simulation environments

C/C++ (OO)

Perl or Python scripting

Education

MS or PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science

Job description

Embedded CPU Performance Engineer, Platform Architecture

Do you get more energy from the hardest problem in the room than the easiest one? Do you want a hand in shaping the CPUs that run quietly inside nearly every Apple product from the one your iPhone relies on to capture the perfect photo, to the one guarding your Apple Watch? The CPU Platform Architecture team exists to push the limits of power-efficient CPU performance, and we hold ourselves to a standard most teams wouldn’t bother with. We’re a tight-knit group obsessed with squeezing every drop of performance out of every milliwatt, bringing together deep expertise in microarchitecture, ISA definition, performance modeling, power modeling, and workload analysis.We’re looking for a highly motivated and innovative Embedded CPU Engineer to join us. In this role, you’ll drive performance and efficiency optimization and explore architectural features for Apple’s embedded CPUs that power critical functions across Apple’s entire product line.

Description

As an Embedded CPU Performance Engineer, you will help define CPUs that are specifically designed for running embedded applications across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and many other Apple products. Your focus will be to seek out areas for improvement in the unique constraints of varied embedded use cases, and model solutions that balance performance, power efficiency, and area.To do this you will collaborate with experienced CPU designers in micro-architecture and RTL to assess the feasibility of ideas through modeling and refine those ideas to make them implementable. You will also correlate RTL with the CPU performance simulator to ensure that the design meets targets and that the model is accurate. The role requires the analysis of specific workloads across a wide variety of existing and new product categories to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement. We collaborate as a larger CPU architecture and performance team to maintain and improve the simulation and correlation environments to enable data driven decisions and look for ways to boost the productivity of the entire team.

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience in CPU and SOC architecture and micro-architecture
• Experience with performance simulation environments
• Object-oriented programming skills in C/C++
• Experience in a scripting language such as Perl or Python

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in CPU microarchitecture in one or more of the following areas: branch prediction, prefetching, pipeline optimization, datapath, memory hierarchy
• 10+ years of relevant industry experience
• MS or PhD in Electrical or Computer Engineering or Computer Science
• Understanding of common data structures and algorithms
• Familiarity with SIMD, vector, or accelerator architectures
• Understanding of: power-performance trade-offs in CPU designs, system-level power management, and low-power design techniques
• Comfortable in an environment of uncertainty and able to navigate through ambiguities
• Experience in a research-driven environment

Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek to promote equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Learn more about your EEO rights as an applicant

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Apple accepts applications to this posting on an ongoing basis.