Hardware Validation and Debug Engineer - DDR

Graphcore is a globally recognised leader in Artificial Intelligence computing systems. The company designs advanced semiconductors and data centre hardware that provide the specialised processing power needed to drive AI innovation, while delivering the efficiency required to support its broader adoption.

As part of the SoftBank Group, Graphcore is a member of an elite family of companies responsible for some of the world’s most transformative technologies. We are expending our labs in Bristol which will play a central role in Graphcore's work building the future of AI computing.

We are looking for a Validation and Debug engineer to work with Architecture, Silicon Engineering, Hardware Engineering and the Firmware team to help create and execute the bring-up and debug of our cutting-edge system platforms. As such you will need to develop a detailed understanding of our silicon and platform products. Your role will be to create and execute Validation and Debug plans of our silicon devices and platforms in systems to show that they will operate correctly over all conditions in the final product. This Validation will also involve debugging of hardware and firmware. You will concentrate on mainly manual testing of systems in the lab with the aid of some automation.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Perform Validation and Debug for new hardware platforms.
• Debug PCB, power, signal integrity, and interface issues.
• Validate and debug high-speed memory interfaces and slow speed interfaces
  • LPDDR5-9600 memory interfaces
  • SPI/I2C/I3C/UART
• Support LPDDR5-9600 initialization, training, timing optimization, margin analysis, and stability validation.
• Analyse DDR timing margins, signal integrity, eye diagrams, and training behaviour.
• Identify root causes and drive corrective actions across hardware and firmware domains.
• Create bring-up documentation, test procedures, and debug reports.

Working closely with:

• PCB design engineers
• Power engineers
• Signal integrity engineers
• Embedded software teams

Essential skills

• Hardware Debug
• LPDDR validation and tuning
• Signal integrity analysis
• DDR training and margin analysis
• Protocol-level debugging
• Root-cause analysis
• Low-level system integration
• An ability to work independently without daily oversight.
• Independently performs board bring-up and subsystem debug
• Drives issue resolution across teams.

• Use advanced lab instrumentation including:
  • High-bandwidth oscilloscopes
  • BERT systems
  • VNA/TDR equipment

• Hands-on experience with:
• LPDDR5 memory subsystems
• LPDDR5 compliance testing

Desirable skills:

• Knowledge of PCBA and system level technologies
• Ethernet validation
• PCIe
• Background knowledge of ATE systems and capabilities. You may not be directly involved with such testing.
• The ability to code or script automation and data analysis using appropriate coding languages such as Python, LabView and BASH.

Benefits:

In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers a competitive benefits package. We welcome people of different backgrounds and experiences; we’re committed to building an inclusive work environment that makes Graphcore a great home for everyone.