System Performance Modeling Engineer/Architect
Summary
Build cycle-approximate and analytical models in C++/SystemC/Python to predict chip performance before RTL, analyze bottlenecks, and guide architecture decisions for AI accelerators.
You build full-chip performance models that predict chip performance before RTL exists and as the design evolves. You model tile arrays, NoC, and memory systems, analyze workloads and bottlenecks, evaluate architectural trade-offs, correlate predictions with implementation results, and provide performance references for architecture and verification teams.
Responsibilities
- Build and maintain cycle-approximate and analytical models in C++, SystemC, and Python
- Produce roofline and bottleneck analyses
- Model NoC contention, memory bandwidth, and QoS under realistic traffic
- Generate and parameterize traffic scenarios for architecture studies
- Run architectural sweeps across tile count, local-memory size, NoC topology, bandwidth, memory channels, and QoS
- Turn modeling results into architecture recommendations
- Correlate model predictions against RTL, emulation, FPGA, and silicon
- Quantify and close the modeling-to-reality gap
- Provide performance references and golden-model hooks for performance and verification teams
- Maintain dashboards and trade-off presentations
Requirements
- 5+ years in performance modeling or architecture for SoCs and accelerators
- Strong C++ and Python skills
- Experience with SystemC or a comparable cycle-approximate modeling framework
- Understanding of memory hierarchy, bandwidth and latency trade-offs, interconnect and NoC behavior, and roofline reasoning
- Ability to model subsystems and turn results into architecture decisions
- Ability to work from incomplete specifications and collaborate across architecture, design, and software teams
- Familiarity with NoC or interconnect modeling, memory-controller behavior, or 3D-DRAM/HBM bandwidth analysis
- Exposure to compiler/dataflow co-design for accelerators
- Experience correlating models against RTL, emulation, or silicon
- Background with tile-based or dataflow architectures
Benefits
- Attractive welfare benefits
- Training and mentoring