Three illustrative plans, one per path. Each session is roughly two to three hours of reading plus exercises. Adjust the pace to your week, but keep the order: later sessions assume earlier vocabulary. Plans reference sections; inside each section, work its topics in nav order.
Session | Read | Exit check |
|---|---|---|
1 | Clock Domains and Failure Modes: both topics. | Define a crossing, classify clock relationships, and list the five failure modes from memory. |
2 | Metastability and Synchronizers: MTBF, two-flop rules, multi-bit hazards. | Draw the synchroniser, recite its five rules, and explain why bitwise sync fails on buses. |
3 | CDC Protocols and Handshakes plus the decision matrix. | Map any crossing type and ratio to a pattern and its hazard; size a FIFO symbolically. |
4 | Partition a block to minimise crossings and sequence a two-domain release correctly. |
Session | Read | Exit check |
|---|---|---|
1 | Clock Domains and Failure Modes and Metastability and Synchronizers. | Classify findings by mechanism before opening any report. |
2 | CDC Signoff Methodology: tool flow, constraints, and formal and simulation. | Set up clocks, resets, and intent, and name what structural analysis cannot prove. |
3 | Write a complete waiver and run a gate review from the checklists. | |
4 | Triage RDC categories and specify a reset-aware simulation plan. | |
5 | Debug and Case Studies, then the Capstone Signoff Lab. | Close the capstone: classified report, fixed design, evidenced waivers, signoff package. |
Session | Read | Exit check |
|---|---|---|
1 | Clock Domains and Failure Modes and the two-flop and MTBF topics of Metastability and Synchronizers. | Whiteboard the synchroniser with its rules and explain MTBF behaviour in words. |
2 | CDC Protocols and Handshakes and Reconvergence and Gray Coding. | Compare handshake, FIFO, and Gray schemes with their costs from memory. |
3 | The interview overview and Interview Prep: framework first, then scenarios. | Answer one scenario aloud in the five-step shape without notes. |
4 | The Q&A bank plus CDC Waiver Policy and Reset Domain Crossing. | Defend a waiver decision and a reset-sequence answer under follow-up questions. |
Sessions 2 and 3 of the verification path: setup through dashboards, waivers, and gates. Session 1 supplies the vocabulary; sessions 4 and 5 deepen reset and debug coverage.