Apple
Swindon, UK
I did my 6-month placement at Apple, within the PMU team, based in Swindon. I was a Power Management Unit (PMU) Digital Design Intern. The PMU is responsible for controlling the delivery, sequencing, and management of power within a system. My placement involved working within the Digital Design Team to contribute to the development of power management hardware, from design and implementation through to simulation and verification, spanning across the broad range of the responsibilities of a digital design engineer. Main areas I covered include formal verification, power simulation, verification checks, design tool development, synthesis and area estimation. The team’s culture was very open and collaborative. The shared drive for excellence made it a truly inspiring environment to grow in. Both technically and personally, I grew significantly as an engineer.
My role at Apple was PMU Digital Design Intern. My key contributions included writing formal verification checks which identified two bugs in the RTL. Both of these were immediately fixed by the team. Moreover, I ran power simulations for different operating states and temperatures. I was the direct communication point with the Physical Design team, reporting power figures to them, in order to inform their optimisation decisions. I also implemented verification flows for power regulation components and contributed to tool optimisations in order to speed up day to day tasks. I also delivered a formal verification presentation to multiple teams, and represented Apple at the Girls into Electronics events at Imperial College and UCL.
Throughout, I used and learned a wide range of technical skills, that make a good digital design engineer. These include extensive understanding and use of System Verilog, a hardware description language. A strong understanding of how digital hardware is designed and structured, including low-power logic design techniques and the interface between digital and analogue circuits, was fundamental throughout. I expanded my skills of formal verification, a way to mathematically prove design correctness under all possible inputs. Prior knowledge from modules at Imperial, such as Digital Systems Design and Circuits and Systems, including FPGA experience, provided a strong foundation. I also developed skills in power simulation, as I learned to critically evaluate the validity of power figures for a design and operating state.
Throughout, I used and developed a range of non-technical skills. Communication was central to everything. I collaborated across different teams. I communicated openly and made sure that my deliverables were well documented. The internal presentation, which I delivered to teams of varying levels of familiarity with the technical subject, taught me to adapt complex content to be accessible to different audiences. I also represented Apple at the Girls into Electronics events, strengthening my presentation skills to a non-technical audience. Teamwork was also incredibly significant. I contributed actively to discussions and was invested in the work of those around me. Throughout, I approached every task with creativity and innovation, as I was looking for ways to do things differently and bringing fresh perspectives.