Internship: FPGA Designer - Quantum Computing (m,w,x)

Introduction
IBM Quantum is an industry first initiative to build universal quantum computers for business engineering and science. This effort includes advancing the entire quantum computing technology stack and exploring applications to make quantum broadly usable and accessible. With a worldwide network of Fortune 500 companies academic institutions researchers educators and enthusiasts we are committed to driving innovation for our clients in the IBM Quantum Network and the Qiskit Community.

Your Role and Responsibilities

Today’s quantum computers incorporate several hundred qubits. According to the IBM Quantum roadmap this number will grow to thousands of qubits in the coming years. Apart from the challenges in implementing thousands of qubits in one or more chips there are additional challenges within the Real-Time Architecture (RTA) — the “classical computing” hardware and firmware managing and processing the qubits.

The goal of this internship will be to continue improving existing implementations of controller gateware to allow for more efficient processing and communication among controller CPUs implemented as custom logic in FPGAs.

The tasks will align with one of several focus areas:

• Implement online debugging facilities and interfaces for the open source microwatt processor used within the controllers

• Implement optimized intra-FPGA messaging pipelines to allow for a lower logic utilization for the communication paths connecting the units with the controllers

The task includes:

• extend the capabilities of the latest microwatt processor

• redesign the parallel message representation and reimplement forwarding in a more serial approach

• testing VHDL in the existing system

• synthesis and timing closure using the Xilinx Vivado toolset

• writing low-level firmware to offer the new functionality to consuming software

• implementing custom communication protocols

  This internship is best suited for student of electrical engineering or hardware oriented computer science ideally with some first VHDL Verilog and/or FPGA experience. Students of other technical/scientific fields like physics or mathematics with some of the aforementioned experiences are highly welcome as well.

  The internship should last full-time for 3 months within the period May-September 2024

Please apply with:
1) Cover Letter incl. your availability (earliest start and latest end date)
2) CV incl. your level of German
3) Certificate of enrollment from you university
4) Current transcript of records and other relevant certificates / references
5.1) Non-EU citizen studying in Germany: copy of passport residence and work permit
5.2) Non-EU citizen studying elsewhere: prove of identity incl. place of birth

We are looking forward to your application !

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• VHDL Logic Design
• C/C++ Software Development
• English (B2 level)

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• Version control: Git
• CI/CD experience: Jenkins
• Programming languages: C Makefile
• Verilog for implementing logic on FPGAs
• Xilinx Vivado toolset
• Basic German knowledge