Platform HW Competitive Analysis Engineer

Platform HW Competitive Analysis Engineer

Job Description

Platform HW Competitive Analysis Engineer

Job Duties:

1. Board Analysis:
Analyze CPU/APU/GPU printed circuit boards (PCBs) from various vendors and systems, including notebooks, PC motherboards, and GPU cards.
Identify electrical components and use reverse engineering techniques to understand board topology, architecture, power tree, and key interfaces.

2. Bill of Materials (BOM) Estimation:
Collaborate with component engineers to create estimated BOM files, identifying components with unclear traits.
Utilize the internal cost database to estimate board costs and compare with internal/customer designs.

3. PCB Stack-Up Analysis:
Engage with PCB delamination shops for stack-up analysis, identifying high-speed interfaces and dielectric materials.
Analyze vias, pad stacks, and trace geometries to determine competitor chip ball-out for key interfaces.

4. Power Instrumentation:
Conduct power instrumentation on boards using standardized benchmarks to measure system efficiency.
Measure incoming and output power across various ASIC rails.

5. Reporting and Recommendations:
Prepare reports highlighting cost differences and design/architecture features affecting cost.
Provide recommendations for future competitive platform designs.

Candidate Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering.
3-5 years of experience in platform hardware design/analysis.
Proficiency in high-speed digital interfaces (e.g., LPDDR, GDDR, PCIe, USB, DP, eDP, HDMI, SPI, eSPI).
Experience with complex PCB and system assemblies using FFC/custom cables and interfaces.
Familiarity with PCB BOM cost optimization through design simplification while maintaining functionality and reliability.
Experience collaborating with silicon vendors and suppliers for cost-effective design solutions.
Previous experience in competitive BOM analysis and benchmarking power/efficiency/performance is a plus.

VIVA is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants have an equal opportunity for placement, and all employees have an equal opportunity to develop on the job. This means that VIVA will not discriminate against any employee or qualified applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.