IC designer or firmware engineer?

[jamesyang1209]

Dear Group,
I am a two-year experience digital IC designer. But I feel tired about this job.
Since only about 20% project time doing design but 80% doing verify, the job seems boring to me.
I am wondering if I should switch to firmware job.
But, some senior engineers told me follows:
First, firmware engineer seems less important than IC designer.
Second, firmware engineer is not so hard to enter; many college students can do that job well.
Third, if you want to stay in U.S, IC design is better than firmware since more and more software effort will be done in India and China.

What’s your opinion?

 

[sucan]

It is determined by your interest, the money and the future plan of yours.

 

[jamesyang1209]

Of course it depend on my interest.
But i want to know if my consideration (listed in above three items) are true or not?

 

[radix]

Jamesyang,

It's true that once upon a time, being an ASIC designer had a certain amount of "prestige". However, in recent years things have changed a little. I've got about 13 years doing various aspects of ASIC work and the last couple of years I've seen many ASIC jobs disappear. I'm not sure that I would advise anyone to enter this area if they're just getting started.

Here's an interesting link that might help a little:

**broken link removed**

Regards,
Radix

 

[roger]

Dear Group,
I am a two-year experience digital IC designer. But I feel tired about this job.
Since only about 20% project time doing design but 80% doing verify, the job seems boring to me.
I am wondering if I should switch to firmware job.
But, some senior engineers told me follows:
First, firmware engineer seems less important than IC designer.
Second, firmware engineer is not so hard to enter; many college students can do that job well.
Third, if you want to stay in U.S, IC design is better than firmware since more and more software effort will be done in India and China.

What’s your opinion?

according to your words, there would be no surely answer for you,
some kind of firmware job just do register setting, or try to compensate the hardware design miss. Some kind of firmware(like DSP, Graphic ,you may like it) will focus on algorithms, some of them require very profound
knowledge.

 

[delay]

Basically you are debating between being a hardware engineer and a software engineer. Well, with the new SoC breakthrough you finally have an opportunity to do both on a single product. However, verification is something you probaby won't get by. In fact with SoC, verification effort is further augmented. In either line of work, testing/design validation is most of your job.

 

[FLEXcertifydll]

delay, oh that is right. But an engineer up 35 age
is hard to find a possion in design domain.
So we should know the next step in the future.

 

[FLEXcertifydll]

Another, you can switch to back-end job. Or change
to analog, mixed signal, RF.
Take it easy, enjoy living is importent! is it?

 

[aegean.chou]

I think you can do your best in any field, it's according to your life plan and interest. My flow for you reference:
firmware engineer -> system engineer -> ASIC engineer

 

[glenjoy]

Wow, your job is great, my experience so bad, I onyl spent three months as an Associate Test Engr, I quit due to shifting schedules because I was part of the Production Department, work time is shifting , then I teached part time in a University for six months while working as a Senior Engineer A for 4 months, then now no job because looking for a design job .

 

[cawan]

IC design engineer is more recommended than firmware engineer. IC design engineer deal quite a number of complicated design techniques that as the system core. Firmware engineer is more likely as system associate that develop the firmware according to the hardware framewark. for future, i believe the ic design engineer can have more technical career than firmware engineer.

 

[hech]

ASIC engineer -> ASIC project manager

 

[EcraZ]

Much in demand now is Embedded systems designer as lot of products are getting processor based and also they earn more than asic designer. -- I feel so, maybe wrong.
I guess firmaware designer is close.

 

[xmizi]

I don't wanna discourage you guys but to tell the truth, in US no matter you're firmware or ASIC your future seems dim. More and more engineering jobs are and will be shifted to India/China. Any job that can be done in front of a computer without facing direct customers will disappear in US sooner or later.
Just go to eetimes.com to see how many years experienced American ASIC engineers are whining now.

 

[mandrei]

My opinion is that if you really like electronics and are prepared for a hard work, IC Design directioin is the best choice.
If you like money , then go to firmware because is simple and everyoane can do it.

IC design is an art.
Firmware is a job.

Third, if you want to stay in U.S, IC design is better than firmware since more and more software effort will be done in India and China.

Don't forghet about eastern-Europe (Rusia is obvious the bigest name).
For example in Romania there are allready big companies involved in both IC design and firmware (Motorola,Alcatel etc) because the salary for an engineer is about 500-1000US $/ mounth

[/quote]

 

[sunjimmy]

From my point of view, due to the availability of various IPs, hardware designers will move their focus from ASIC to higher system level development like architecture and algorithm. Verification will become more important than before because of more complex SoC integration. Firmware will become more important than before too. Especially in some embedded applications with power MCU or DSP cores. I guess that product difference will mainly come from the difference of SW/firmware in next 10 years.

 

[troops]

in my point of view , IC DESIGN -> AE -> PM ->CEO
that is best ....

 

[tlihu]

If you want to see the results ASAP, FW is the choice. If you don't want to see the results so quickly, IC designer is the one for you.

 

[videohu]

In future , platform-based design will become a mainstream. So most of efforts of a project will be spent on software developments and hardware verification. So verification engineers and embedded software engineers including firmware engineers will have a bright futures.

 

[emilian6]

In Bulgaria, the salary for an engineer is about 500-1000US $/ mounth in the capital and two times less in the other "big" cities with famous Technical Universities. The taxes now are the lowest in the region of East Europe and I think it's a big deal to invest in the IC design domain. I think, if you are a good IC designer, you could become also a good Manager.