What is Baseband RF communication?

[berkeman]

I got this job notification from Apple via Indeed today, but I'm confused about their use of the term "Baseband RF Communication". Thoughts?

Full job description​

Summary

Posted: Feb 21, 2024

Role Number:200510825

We live in a mobile and device driven world where knowledge of the physical world around us is needed. We rely on this knowledge to get around, to learn about our environment and to enable spectacular new features for custom applications. Apple is meeting those needs as robustly and as creatively as possible and is interested in people who want to help meet that commitment. The success we are striving for will be the result of very skilled people working in an environment which cultivates creativity, partnership, and thinking of old problems in new ways. If that sounds like the kind of environment that you find intriguing, then let's talk. These elements come together to make Apple an amazing environment for motivated people to do the greatest work of their lives. You will become a member of a team that sets the standard in cultivating excellence, creativity and innovation. Will you help us design the next generation of revolutionary Apple products? Be a part of a premier design team responsible for the architecture, design, implementation, verification and integration of the wireless baseband systems for all Apple products. The applicant should be familiar with computer system architecture, digital design, signal integrity and power integrity (SIPI), and design verification tests. The candidate will work proactively with other cross-functional engineering groups.

Description

This is a Hardware System Electrical Engineer (a.k.a Baseband HW Design) position in the Hardware Technology group of Apple and it is one of the most diverse roles out there! This team is responsible for the digital, analog, power and clocks of all wireless chipsets in Apple products, from concept to product announcement. During the architectural stage you will work with world-class architects and IC designers on next generation wireless chipset architecture, including Power, Digital, Analog, and Clock Management. During development, you will drive schematics, layout, and chipset bring-up of both development and form factor HW. You will run SIPI simulation and validation to verify your own designs. You will work with multi-functional teams on HW/SW/Coexistence issues that are often seen only with the scale and volume of an Apple product. You will also have the full weight of the world’s leading contract manufacturers behind you in factory prototype support. This role also requires heavy cross-functional collaboration with other Apple teams (application processor, system integration, RF, battery, sensors, iOS, etc.) and therefore you will also maintain a firm grasp of the entire product landscape outside of wireless design. To name a few of our core deliverables: - Signal integrity and power integrity (SIPI) simulation and validation - Power management system designs and validation - Clock management design and validations - Wireless system integration, schematic, PCB layout, BOM, and constraints, for both development platforms and for consumer products - High-speed and low-speed digital interfaces designs and validations - Failure analysis for wireless systems on our prototypes Everything is going wireless. Join the evolution!

 

[Averagesupernova]

The last two sentences. Lol. Everything HAS GONE wireless a while ago. It's hard for me to believe Apple would phrase it that way

 

[Baluncore]

Apple do not know exactly what they want, but they feel a need to throw more digital engineers, who can see through crap, into their HR soup.

Baseband is where the information band includes DC.
Baseband is usually found on one side of a quadrature mixer.

 

[DaveE]

There is a lot of data processing that happens before the information is translated up to the frequencies of the wireless communication channels (like 2GHz). Things like data coding (error correction), channel analysis, data rate, etc. This is typically called the base band. The natural frequency range of the data; like 20Hz - 20kHz for audio.

What I think they are really saying is "if you don't understand this stuff, we probably won't hire you." But really, they might. This is in comparison to the normal response of "I sort of know what all of that stuff is, and there are only 16 people on the planet that can do all of that. I'm not one of them, but I can do 60% of it and can learn the other 20% that you might actually need."

You can really tell a lot about the people you might work for by whether they can write a good job description. If you don't understand the job description, and you can't tell if it's mostly BS, then it's probably not your next job.

 

[Borek]

Pfft, spent two days this Summer putting wires where the wireless stuttered.

Now everything works as expected.

 

[berkeman]

Pfft, spent two days this Summer putting wires where the wireless stuttered.

Now everything works as expected.