Platform HW Competitive Analysis Engineer

Platform HW Competitive Analysis Engineer

12 Months

Location: Austin, TX

Job Duties:

1. Board Analysis:

o Analyze CPU/APU/GPU printed circuit boards (PCBs) from various vendors and systems, including notebooks, PC motherboards, and GPU cards.

o Identify electrical components and use reverse engineering techniques to understand board topology, architecture, power tree, and key interfaces.

2. Bill of Materials (BOM) Estimation:

o Collaborate with component engineers to create estimated BOM files, identifying components with unclear traits.

o Utilize the internal cost database to estimate board costs and compare with internal/customer designs.

3. PCB Stack-Up Analysis:

o Engage with PCB delamination shops for stack-up analysis, identifying high-speed interfaces and dielectric materials.

o Analyze vias, pad stacks, and trace geometries to determine competitor chip ball-out for key interfaces.

4. Power Instrumentation:

o Conduct power instrumentation on boards using standardized benchmarks to measure system efficiency.

o Measure incoming and output power across various ASIC rails.

5. Reporting and Recommendations:

o Prepare reports highlighting cost differences and design/architecture features affecting cost.

o 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.