IBM Internship Hardware Verification m/w/x 

Germany, Baden-Württemberg 

271327876

part-time for up to 12 months or asfull-time for 6 months). Please specify in your application which topic you prefer because we would like to plan your internship according to your skills and interests. Telling us the planned duration and start date of an internship is mandatory.

Selection of possible topics:

Topic 1: Automated pre-silicon system performance analysis framework

The work will be based on an existing rapid prototype implementation. It will re-factor, improve, optimize and expand it.

1. The first step would be to analyze the existing data set, performance metrics and the current prototype.
2. The solution then needs to be optimized to the pre-silicon performance regression use-case, e.g. by applying further data science methods and/or developing new scores.
3. Eventually, AI and/or machine learning techniques can be applied to make the solution adaptive to changes throughout the project, or over the course of several project, respectively.

To develop complex microprocessors, multiple hierarchies of the design are being simulated in order to ensure a first-time right design when the first chips are being produced. These complex chips consisting of ASICS and processors incorporate IP as well as standard interfaces. The current IBM verification framework consists of proprietary tools from EDA vendors as well as internal tools. To enable horizontal and vertical reuse across multiple verification levels and components, it is important to base the verification methodology on standards such as Portable Stimulus, languages such as System Verilog but also enabling common programming languages such as Python and C++.

Topic 3: Boosting simulation efficiency using container checkpointing

When developing complex microprocessors a flexible, scalable and robust development environment and tools flow are of utmost importance. A variety of tools and frameworks – both from external vendors as well as internal ones – need to be run and executed across a large pool of development systems.

One of the most promising technologies in recent years has been the containerization of development environments along with the promise of massive scalability through cloud technologies such as OpenShift / Kubernetes.

First prototypes and experiments that involve the increased use of this technology for hardware development have shown promising results. The use of containers opens many possibilities that we would like to explore further.

The objective of this work topic is to explore the capabilities of container checkpointing and to create a prototype simulation environment that can leverage this new technology. If successful, there are many more use cases the simulation flow could benefit from.

1) Cover Letter incl. your availability (earliest start and latest end date) and topic of choice
2) CV incl. your level of German
3) university enrollment document to prove that you are still studying
4) current transcript of records and other relevant certificates / references
5.1) Non-EU citizen studying in Germany: copy of passport, residence and work permit
5.2) Non-EU citizen studying elsewhere: prove of identity incl. place of birth
Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• Study of computer science, electrical engineering or a similar direction
• Good knowledge of programming (C++ preferred), knowledge of a scripting language like Python
• Knowledge of Development tools / technologies (e.g. git)
• Good team worker and interest to work in international teams
• Strong communication skills in English

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• First experience in developing hardware, e.g. VHDL or Verilog knowledge, and performance analysis
• Knowledge of AI, data science, statistics, and machine learning
• Knowledge of web frameworks like React, FastAPI