With the life cycle of the Wii U having nearly two years under its belt, Nintendo has posted a new job listing for a lead graphic engineer for a next-gen console. It makes sense, as the life cycle of consoles means by the time a company’s current console is on shelves and available to consumers, it’s time to start thinking about the future. Very few details about what Nintendo has been working on next have been released, but from the posted job listing we can glean a few details.
First, low power consumption is still a priority for Nintendo, as the listing indicates that experience working with low power architecture. Here’s a look at everything in the listing:
Description of Duties
Nintendo Technology Development is looking for a lead graphics architect in the system-on-chip architecture group in Redmond, WA. The group is responsible for the architecture of Nintendo’s game console SoCs. The graphics architect plays a key role in determining the SoC architecture. The job responsibilities are:
- Evaluate HW graphics (GPU) offerings from SoC solutions available in the market based on performance, power, and silicon area.
- Evaluate the performance of the SoC solutions for both proprietary and standard graphics APIs.
- Determine workloads and simulation models for both performance and power characteristics of GPUs.
- Keep track of GPU architectural improvements in the industry and devise strategies to incorporate them for future Nintendo gaming platforms.
- Act as the graphics architectural evangelist working with global Nintendo teams for future and on-going programs.
- Work with external SoC vendors as the Nintendo focal point for graphics GPU architecture.
- Should be prepared to work through architecture, design, validation, and bring-up stages of SoC design in cooperation with internal and external teams.
Summary of Requirements
- The ideal candidate will have had experience working directly in a GPU architecture and design team with significant responsibilities.
- Low power and SoC design experience would be a plus.
- The candidate is expected to have good architectural insights and the ability to apply that for setting future graphics direction for Nintendo.
- A bachelors degree (graduate degree preferred) in computer science/engineering or electrical engineering.
- 5+ years of lead or architectural role experience are required.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this listing is that it is for a position in Redmond, Washington. Nintendo’s research and development departments have traditionally been located in Kyoto. Perhaps Nintendo is realizing that the home console market in Japan is dwindling so much that they should focus their next console effort on the West, similar to what Sony has done, as the PlayStation 4 is the first Sony console designed by the SCEA team.
What do you think?