Can a Computer Science Student Be Taught to Design Hardware?

Post by i_don_t_know » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 11:13 AM UTC

rramadass wrote: post #107

BitsAndObjects wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Software into Hardware? Your fastest route in is to learn Python and find one of the many startups hiring for CocoTB-based verification roles. Depends a bit on what country you're in - I'm happy to give recommendations for the UK! If you're feeling like learning SystemVerilog, then learn Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), to get into the verification end. If you want to stay in software but be involved in…

As a Software Engineer, i had long thought about learning (and possibly moving into) Hardware Chip Design and/or its ancillary support domains i.e. what you have listed. I understand that learning FPGA programming (Verilog/VHDL/etc.) is a first-step in that journey. Would you agree? Have you looked at books like FPGAs for Software Programmers ? - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-26408-0 For each of th…

Post by erxam » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

pxtail wrote: post #86

culopatin wrote: post #85

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If there is a shortage, and engineers are trainable, are there apprenticeships available? I’d gladly move to this field.

Nah, we don't do that here, instead ideal entry level applicant should have 5y of experience when applying.

Post by erxam » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

BitsAndObjects wrote: post #53

Tharre wrote: post #49

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> * Chip design pays better than software in many cases and many places (US and UK included; Where are these companies? All you ever hear from the hardware side of things are that the tools suck, everyone makes you sign NDAs for everything and that the pay is around 30% less. You can come up with counterexamples like Nvidia I suppose, but that's a bit like saying just work for a startup that becomes a billion dollar…

Oh by the way, I agree, NDAs all the time, and many of the tools are super user-unfriendly. There's quite a bit of money being made in developing better tools. As for a list of companies, in the UK or with a UK presence, the following come to mind: Graphcore, Fractile, Olix, Axelera, Codasip, Secqai, PQShield, Vaire, SCI Semiconductor and probably also look at Imagination Tech, AMD and Arm. There are many other compa…

Post by BitsAndObjects » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

erxam wrote: post #113

pxtail wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, we don't do that here, instead ideal entry level applicant should have 5y of experience when applying.

Our ideal apprenticeship applicant must have: - 5 years of experience in the proprietary, unique-to-our-company tech stack - a PhD in semiconductor physics (MSc with 10+ years of experience is also acceptable) - Taiwanese and US citizenship - a desire to work 16+ hours a day for 6 days a week

Post by rramadass » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 4:37 AM UTC

i_don_t_know wrote: post #111

rramadass wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Software Engineer, i had long thought about learning (and possibly moving into) Hardware Chip Design and/or its ancillary support domains i.e. what you have listed. I understand that learning FPGA programming (Verilog/VHDL/etc.) is a first-step in that journey. Would you agree? Have you looked at books like FPGAs for Software Programmers ? - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-26408-0 For each of th…

When I became interested in FPGAs recently, I read this book https://nostarch.com/gettingstartedwithfpgas I bought a cheap FPGA board based on Lattice's ice40. There are free OSS tools to write, simulate, and install your Verilog/VHDL design onto the ice40. It's probably a far cry from what a professional FPGA programmer does with Vivado etc but it might give you an inexpensive idea of the basics and if you want to p…