New Grad HW interview at Intel - what to expect?

AMD
sleepintea

Go to company page AMD

sleepintea
Jan 2 32 Comments

Have three hour-long interviews scheduled with Intel for next week - they were kind enough to list the topics (computer architecture, validation, software, logic) so I'm just hoping I have my bases covered. I know quite a bit about SV and UVM, software I should have covered, but computer architecture is a broad enough term that I'm not sure what to expect. Does logic mean your typical brain teaser questions as well, or more design-oriented?

Honestly really looking forward to the interviews, thanks for the help!

#hardware #intel

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TOP 32 Comments
  • Apple
    Hoatzin

    Go to company page Apple

    Hoatzin
    1. Verilog/System Verilog basics: -Blocking vs Non-blocking statements
    -Casex vs Casez
    2. Combinational logic design:
    -Build logic gate X using only Y
    -Design a barrel mux
    -Various adder designs
    3. State Machine design
    - Pattern recognition
    - Generate Clock X with a period nZ using Clock Y with period Z
    4. FIFO/RAM design
    5. Clock domain crossing design principles
    - Async FIFO design
    - Buffer size calculation
    6. Various arbitration schemes/design
    7. Floating point arithmetic (not very common unless it’s a arithmetic block role)
    Jan 2 1
    • AMD
      sleepintea

      Go to company page AMD

      sleepintea
      OP
      Thank you! I'm pretty familiar with most concepts except the arbiter, thanks for reminding me. Got asked about arbiters when interviewing with another company and was completely clueless.
      Jan 2
  • AMD
    zeninside

    Go to company page AMD

    zeninside
    R u crazy. why r u interviewing for intel. U must be mad.
    Jan 2 2
    • AMD
      sleepintea

      Go to company page AMD

      sleepintea
      OP
      AMD didn't give a return offer (maybe it's because of when I graduate, though more likely my work wasn't good enough) and is mostly hiring for Austin - while I like Austin, I much prefer west coast weather that's less stressful to deal with...
      Jan 3
    • AMD
      zeninside

      Go to company page AMD

      zeninside
      Ok. What group is this.
      Jan 3
  • Intel
    spvK13

    Go to company page Intel

    spvK13
    Please post your experience after the interviews it will help.
    Thanks
    Jan 3 6
  • Intel
    stphen

    Go to company page Intel

    stphen
    CMOS basics, digital design, virtual memory..i got fulltime offer recently 120k, 30k/3. Let me know how it goes :)
    Jan 2 4
  • Micron
    opteron

    Go to company page Micron

    opteron
    Basic computer architecture concepts include cpu core architecture, cache concepts, virtual memory. It is difficult to predict type of questions since it depends on interviewer but if the role is related to design/verification of core/caches, may be expect both design oriented/brain teasing questions on those topics.
    Jan 2 2
    • Teradyne / Eng
      bayybae

      Go to company page Teradyne Eng

      bayybae
      Look at loop unrolling, multithreading, OOPs concepts -> also see how at programming level you can cultivate these concepts.

      Yes, do expect some logical questions. Probability based or some algorithm structure based.

      Regarding CMOS, I would say just pick an Inverter. Look at sizing of PMOS-NMOS. Why PMOS size greater than NMOS, how electron channel works, why you have a capacitor to ground the current, what is a crowbar circuit , etc. but I would touch at in the end.

      For SV, UVM - you should be able to build a tb at class level. Scoreboard, Monitor questions and OOP questions are most common.
      Jan 2
    • AMD
      sleepintea

      Go to company page AMD

      sleepintea
      OP
      Thank you both! UVM is something I'm pretty confident in talking about, but I'll have to touch up on CMOS stuff quite a bit.
      Jan 2