Low-Power RTL Engineer AI ASICs

Etched is building AI chips that are hard-coded for individual model architectures. Our first product (Sohu) only supports transformers, but has an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than a B200. With Etched ASICs, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like real-time video generation models and extremely deep & parallel chain-of-thought reasoning agents.

Key responsibilities

• Optimize RTL designs to boost power efficiency while meeting performance and area objectives.
• Perform power analysis throughout various stages of silicon design, applying power-saving strategies in RTL such as clock gating, power gating, multi-voltage domains, and dynamic voltage scaling.
• Conduct power estimation and evaluate PPA trade-offs for both new and existing design features.
• Collaborate closely with the physical design team to ensure power targets are met during the synthesis, place-and-route (P&R), and sign-off phases.
• Create precise power models from RTL simulations and gate-level netlists, and perform power roll-up analysis to estimate chip-level power consumption under different conditions.

You may be a good fit if you have

• Experience in RTL development using Verilog/System Verilog, with a focus on low-power RTL design and optimization for complex digital systems.
• In-depth knowledge and experience in implementing low-power techniques like clock gating, power gating, and dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS).
• Familiarity with synthesis and place-and-route processes with an emphasis on optimizing for power.

Strong candidates may also have experience with

• UPF/CPF power intent specifications.
• Power analysis tools such as Synopsys Prime Power, Cadence Joules, or similar.
• Automation of power analysis and optimization workflows using scripting languages (Tcl, Perl, Python).
• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with 100% of premium covered
• Housing subsidy of $2,000/month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office
• Relocation support for those moving to Cupertino

How we’re different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson . We think most of the progress in the AI field has come from using more FLOPs to train and run models, and the best way to get more FLOPs is to build model-specific hardware. Larger and larger training runs encourage companies to consolidate around fewer model architectures, which creates a market for single-model ASICs.

We are a fully in-person team in Cupertino, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both as needed.

*

indicates a required field

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

Phone

Country *

Phone *

Resume/CV *

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Linked In Profile

Website

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.

Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Etched’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.

As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a…