Senior Staff RTL Design Engineer - CPU Frontend

As the pioneers who introduced RISC-V to the world, SiFive is transforming the future of compute by bringing the limitless potential of RISC-V to the highest performance and most data-intensive applications in the world. SiFive’s unrivaled compute platforms are continuing to enable leading technology companies around the world to innovate, optimize and deliver the most advanced solutions of tomorrow across every market segment of chip design, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, automotive, data center, mobile, and consumer. With SiFive, the future of RISC-V has no limits.

At SiFive, we are always excited to connect with talented individuals, who are just as passionate about driving innovation and changing the world as we are.  

Our constant innovation and ongoing success is down to our amazing teams of incredibly talented people, who collaborate and support each other to come up with truly groundbreaking ideas and solutions.  Solutions that will have a huge impact on people's lives; making the world a better place, one processor at a time. 

Are you ready?  

To learn more about SiFive’s phenomenal success and to see why we have won the GSA’s prestigious Most Respected Private Company Award (for the fourth time!), check out our website and Glassdoor pages.

Job Description:

The Role

As a CPU Microarchitecture/RTL design engineer at SiFive, you will be part of a team of engineers who are passionate about designing industry-leading CPU cores, based on the revolutionary open-source RISC-V architecture. We are looking for people who are as excited as we are about working in a fast-paced dynamic environment to bring new hardware IP to market quickly, with high quality and exceptional performance.

Responsibilities

• Architect, design and implement new features, performance improvements, and ISA extensions in RISC-V CPU core generators using Chisel.

• Integrate new design content into SiFive’s Chisel/FIRRTL framework and contribute to improvements to that framework to enable automatic configuration/generation of documentation, verification testbenches and tests, and packaged software.

• Perform initial sandbox verification, and work with the design verification team to create and execute thorough verification test plans.

• Work with the physical implementation team to implement and optimize physical design to meet frequency, area, and power goals.

• Collaborate with the performance modeling team for performance exploration and optimization to meet performance goals.

• Microarchitecture development and specification. Ensure that knowledge is shared via great documentation and participation in a culture of collaborative design.

Requirements

• BS/MS degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering or related field, or equivalent experience.

• 7+ years of design experience.

• Academic or professional experience with CPU RTL design in one or more of the following areas: instruction fetch, instruction decode, branch prediction, coherent caches, cache prefetching, TLBs.

• Proficiency in hardware (RTL) design in Verilog, System Verilog, or VHDL.

• Strong software engineering skills/background, including:

  • Object-oriented, aspect-oriented, and particularly functional programming

  • Templated metaprogramming, in any language

  • Compiler infrastructures, particularly for domain-specific languages

  • Data modeling, particularly intermediate representations for optimizing or transforming compiler passes

  • Test-driven development, particularly ability to write adaptive unit tests

• Attention to detail and a focus on high-quality design.

• Ability to work well with others and share the belief that engineering is teamwork.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with Scala/Chisel, Bluespec, or some other language/DSL for expressing configurable hardware via software.

• Knowledge of RISC-V architecture.

• Expertise in CPU processor designs in one or more of the following areas is a plus: instruction fetch; instruction decode; register renaming and instruction scheduling; vector units; load-store unit.

• Knowledge of verification principles, testbenches, UVM, and coverage.

• Experience with Git/Github, Jira, Confluence.

Pay & Benefits

Consistent with SiFive values and applicable law, we provide the following information to promote pay transparency and equity. We have a market-based pay structure which varies by location.  Please note that the base pay range is a guideline, and our compensation range reflects the cost of labor in the U.S. geographic market based on the location of the role. Pay within these ranges varies and depends on job-related knowledge, skills, and relevant work experience. 

For candidates who receive and offer, the starting salary will vary based on various factors including, but not limited to, such qualifications as, skill level, competencies, and work location.  The range provided may represent a candidate range and may not reflect the full range for an individual tenured employee.

Base Pay Range

In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for variable/ incentive compensation and/ or equity.  In addition, this role is eligible for a comprehensive, competitive benefits package which may include healthcare and retirement plans, paid time off, and more! 

Additional Information:

This position requires a successful background and reference checks and satisfactory proof of your right to work in

Any offer of employment for this position is also contingent on the Company verifying that you are a authorized for access to export-controlled technology under applicable export control laws or, if you are not already authorized, our ability to successfully obtain any necessary export license(s) or other approvals.

SiFive is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

As an E-Verify employer, we use this system to confirm the employment eligibility of all new hires in accordance with federal law. All applicants will be required to complete a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, upon hire. We do not use E-Verify to pre-screen job candidates and will comply with all E-Verify regulations.

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