Apple New Silicon Initiative (NSI)

Silicon and hardware technologies are responsible for the key components that bring intelligence to smartphones, computers, tablets, smartwatches, and more. It’s become increasingly difficult to find products that don’t have semiconductor technology in them. Everyday products, from wireless speakers to vacuums and coffee makers, contain sensors, processors, intelligent power management, wireless communication and more, that are all designed, architected, validated, and tested by silicon engineers.

Prairie View A&M University is one of four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to receive an Apple Innovation Grant, designed to support Schools of Engineering as they develop their silicon and hardware technologies curriculum in partnership with Apple’s experts. The three-year grant comes as part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative and the company’s New Silicon Initiative, designed to inspire and prepare students for careers in hardware engineering, computer architecture, and silicon chip design.

Prairie View A&M’s Innovation Grant from Apple is being used to provide funding and other support for lab space, guest lectures, scholarships, faculty training, curriculum support, and more.

Integrated circuit design and engineering is more critical than ever. With a slowing of Moore’s law and end of Dennard scaling, challenges abound to deliver ever increasing performance and power efficiency. Apple has long recognized these challenges and develops world-class silicon for its products. Through this engagement, Prairie View A&M University is very excited to offer scholarships to undergraduate students and teaching assistantship positions to graduate students. This program recognizes a few top students with expressed interest in integrated circuit engineering, Digital Design and Computer Architecture.

Applications can be submitted, and finalists will be interviewed as part of the evaluation process. Check back later this summer for more information on the application deadlines.

Apple engineers are working with the Prairie View A&M University faculty to support a variety of VLSI design and computer hardware courses. Subject matter experts from Apple will provide guest lectures for courses in Integrated Circuit Design, Computer Architecture and many other areas in the VLSI curriculum.

Students will have the opportunity to submit their design projects for tapeout. Tapeout is the final design process before a circuit is sent for manufacturing. Student teams will create the specification, circuit design and verification for tapeout, and their designs will be sent for fabrication at the end of the semester. Apple engineers will be available to mentor and approve the designs throughout the semester.

Below is the recommended course sequence to prepare students for the Tapeout class and other career opportunities in silicon hardware technologies.