CPU Software Intern

At NUVACORE we're designing a new general-purpose CPU core for the sustained, intensive demands of AI infrastructure and agentic computing, not the workloads of the past. As a member of the CPU-software team, you will enable the design to achieve the target PPA (Power, performance, area) specifications by writing software and AI tools which we use in the lab. We write our own tools because custom-silicon needs custom-tools. Telemetry is an interdisciplinary field ranging from low-level hardware interfacing, to pure numerical data analysis and GUIs. This is a chance to work with some of the best designers in the industry, in the middle–the intersection of hardware and software, of design and implementation, across pre and post-silicon. Nobody will match every line of the list below, and we’re not expecting you to. Tell us which dimensions you’re strong on, and we’ll see where you fit in. Note you must be flexible and willing to grow in all dimensions. We will help you grow.

THE ROLE

• Understand how computer performance is measured.
• Understand how computer performance is measured at different levels of abstractions.
• Peel the onion to relate wall-time scores to low-level telemetry. For example, going from “this is slower” to “this is saturating memory bandwidth”.
• Understand how computer performance is tuned re-tuned.
• Understand how computer performance happens by running specific workloads (like geek-bender!) and gleaning insights into their operation.
• Develop a tool suite and telemetry architecture to process data from the hardware to the user.
• Understand how hardware works, firmware, OS, device drivers, and how programs work.
• Can you make AI in the lab work with a new chip nobody has seen before?
• Work on Agents, MCP servers, LLMs.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Currently an Undergraduate in CE, EE, CS or NΨ.
• Familiarity with Computer Architecture and hardware fundamentals.
• Exceptional ability with some of the following: AI, System Programming, Computer Architecture or Computer lab operations.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, comfortable working directly with foundry, CAD, and physical design partner teams.
• Flexible and open to tackling any challenge.

REQUIREMENTS — PREFERRED

• Loves coding, experimentation, collaborating and sharing results with others.
• Has strong persistence and is self-driven.
• Wants to develop an Encyclopedia-like knowledge of a modern CPU and SOC w.r.t. performance.

The next great CPU won't build itself. We’re assembling a world-class team across every layer of CPU development, from architecture and design to verification, physical implementation, software, infrastructure, and product delivery. Every discipline matters, and every person has the opportunity to help shape the technology from the ground up.