ASIC Emulation Engineer

What You'll Do

It used to be that high-speed packet forwarding was performed in dedicated ASIC designs. These days we are looking to make those ASICs more general and programmable. Cisco Common ASIC Group is looking for an ASIC Emulation Engineer to work on the shift left methodology to find post-silicon performance and functional issues before tape out for our next generation switching systems.

As part of the ASIC team, you will develop the emulation environment, build netlists, and use them to speed up the development cycle and find potential ASIC issues during the pre-silicon phase. There are only a very few teams worldwide that implement such devices. Every time you access the Internet, chances are, your data's been through one of our switches.

Who You'll Work With

You will work with Cisco’s best-in-class switching solution team. Our team is responsible for driving integration of the Nexus systems and ACI with software, including OpenStack, Docker, and Open vSwitch, to help our customers build multitenant clouds.

Who You Are

You are a dedicated, motivated ASIC emulation/verification engineer eager to join the team and contribute to the verification of very complex ASICs. You have a Design Emulation background with hands-on experience with emulation platforms like Veloce, Palladium, or Zebu. You will be fluent in System Verilog or Verilog to work on the Emulation infrastructure development.

In-depth knowledge of C++, scripting, as well as ASIC design and verification flow is your strength.

You’ll be part of Cisco Common ASIC Group, focusing on developing and testing various emulation flows and contributing to different aspects of ASIC verification for bug-free Silicon.

You will collaborate closely with the design team and the hardware team to verify the ASIC in emulation and during ASIC bring-up.

Responsibilities Include:

• Develop state-of-the-art emulation environments that will be used to evaluate the performance and functionality of multi-terabit systems.
• Developing emulation infrastructure using C/C++ and TCL
• As a team member, work closely with the design, DV, power, and post-silicon diagnostic teams.
• Assist with test plan design, test implementation, and debugging during the pre-silicon emulation process.
• Develop tests to generate complex traffic performance scenarios to catch potential post-silicon issues during the pre-silicon phase.
• Work with leading emulation vendors to troubleshoot issues.

Education and Experience Required:

• Master’s degree in EE (Electrical & Electronics) or CE (Computer Engineering) with 2+ years of relevant experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in EE or CE and 3+ years of relevant experience.

Knowledge and Skills:

Mandatory Skills:

• 1+ years of emulation experience on platforms such as Palladium, Veloce, or Zebu, as well as experience with compilation, debug, and performance testing.
• Hands-on RTL development for Emulation prototypes and proficiency in Verilog, System Verilog.
• Hands-on experience with C/C++ and TCL infrastructure development.
• Familiarity with System debug tools like gdb, and waveform debuggers.

Nice to Have Skills:

• Hands-on experience with scripting programs (e.g., Python, Perl or similar).
• Strong communication skills and ability to work as a team.
• Post-silicon functional validation or debugging experience is a plus.
• Knowledge of protocols e.g. PCie, I2C, Ethernet packet headers, Ethernet protocol is preferred.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative and team-focused, with the drive to learn and grow.

We Are Cisco

#WeAreCisco, where each person is unique, but we bring our talents to work as a team and make a difference powering an inclusive future for all.

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Day to day, we focus on the give and take. We give our best, give our egos a break, and give of ourselves (because giving back is built into our DNA.) We take accountability, bold steps, and take difference to heart. Because without diversity of thought and a dedication to equality for all, there is no moving forward.