Digital Design Engineer
The digital designer is the core of the microchip design world. Going all the way back to the first chips, creating complex logic operations on a tiny piece of silicon has been the goal. It is the digital design engineer who crafts those logic functions and accomplishes that goal.
Neary every computer chip that is designed has multiple functional blocks. There might be an arithmetic unit, a counter block, an ethernet controller block, and any number of other functional blocks needed to complete the design. The digital designer uses hardware description languages, like Verilog or VHDL, to write a form of computer program describing the logic needed to accomplish the stated goal. Then, the logic is run through a simulator which allows the engineer to see if the circuit will function properly and if not, changes are easily made to the code, and it is re-simulated. This loop is repeated until the circuit is correct.
On a chip, there are often many different functional blocks, so the digital designer must take care to ensure that their block will interoperate with other blocks, which have possibly been designed by other people or even in other countries. Often, the overall circuit is trying to meet a certain published standard, for example, USB 2.0, so the engineers must ensure that the circuit will be able to communicate with other USB 2.0 devices without issue. This standards compliance requires a strong eye for detail and the ability to understand where things go-wrong in complex protocols.
In companies where hardware description languages (HDLs) are used, the digital designer might be a programmer as much as an electronic engineer. Because of this, digital design presents a good opportunity for people interested in system level architecture, code-structure, and inter-team development to grow and move-up in the design engineering ranks. Digital design is a challenging field which pays well and is especially suited to people who love to write programs.
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