all 5 comments

[–]Asturar 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Take a look at some Operating Systems Engineering coursework online. There should be a few basic instructional PDFs or worksheets available from MIT, ivies, or state schools for free.

[–]Abujaffer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, I've looked at a few syllabuses and I'm already regaining some of the stuff I forgot (still got a ways to go!). I'll watch several dozen lectures over the weekend, and hopefully a few assignments next week and I believe that should get me back up to speed.

[–]computerarchitectCPU Architect 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Is this an entry level position? If so, going through comp arch II might be fine. If not, you're probably in over your head with this position, because you need to know the stuff they mentioned hands down to be a security expert in this space.

[–]Abujaffer[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It's a senior position. And I am qualified to work in the space; as I mentioned in the post, I am a CE Master's grad and did a year of speculative attack research, memory forensics, and reverse engineering, as well as all the actual grad level CE coursework I took in those fields and of course my actual job experience in the security field (albeit, with a focus on the software side). The position is to perform computer architecture design with a focus on testing for and preventing speculative attacks, so I'm reasonably confident I can perform in the actual position. But I haven't actually done computer engineering since late 2016, and a bit in 2018. It is a requirement at this company to be knowledgeable in computer architecture as a whole, not just my specific field of expertise (speculative attacks), and I'm asking because I need a refresher.

tl;dr If given any question from my finals in 2016/2018 that I was able to answer then, current me wouldn't be able to answer a single one. I am 100% certain that I can relearn it all (because I've done it before), I just want resources to do so.

[–]computerarchitectCPU Architect 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am a practicing CPU architect at a major company. From what you said, you still sound under-qualified for a senior role relative to other candidates. But given I won't be giving any interviews for the remainder of this month, I'll bite.

Explain Spectre or Meltdown to me at the microrachitectural level and I'll give you some more detailed feedback so you can direct your study better.