What appeals to me about Electronics

I love how electronics can be used to create complex systems that can fit in the palm of your hand. The ability to be faced with a problem and find a solution that you can prove to be correct is immensely satisfying, and will be an itch I always need to scratch. It’s hard to not look at the world around us and enjoy understanding how it has come together using electronics.

My experience working for Codasip

Codasip appealed to me as they felt like a family, and my time there confirmed that. The work that they do is industry leading in many areas of CPU design, and yet the scale is such that you can talk to an expert of each part, all in the same room. I took a number of modules in University that primed me for IC design work; I was intrigued by the projects I had completed, and that lead me to research and find a company that would let me explore it – Codasip was that company.

My placement

During my placement, I got to work on cutting-edge CPU microarchitectures at every stage of the design process. I interacted with all of the teams at Codasip, and got to see how they work together; for some of them, I had the chance to participate in the work they were doing. My favourite was with the Architecture team: I helped to create a simulator to find the best parameters for a new CPU, and then I designed a framework for running a benchmark program and feeding the execution trace into the simulator. I also spent some time optimising existing RTL for power, performance and area. This work was particularly valuable to me, as it was my first chance to be outside of an educational setting – to do something that would be used in the real world.

My interests outside of work

I enjoy listening to music on my record player, and my collection is always growing. I also love going to my local station for some trainspotting – my favourite train is the Class 43.