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Course contents

  • How to Use This Course
  • Reading Path
  • STA Glossary
  • STA Metrics Reference
  • STA Mastery Cheatsheet
  • Timing Paths and Checks16
  • Constraints & SDC Fundamentals20
  • Delay Graph & Path Analysis16
  • Beyond Setup and Hold16
  • Multi-Corner Multi-Mode Signoff16
  • OCV, AOCV, POCV and Variation16
  • Crosstalk and Noise16
  • ECO and Closure16
  • STA Debug Playbook16
  • STA Interview Prep26
    • STA Whiteboard Framework
    • STA Framework Drills
    • Scenario: MMMC Storm
    • Scenario: ECO Under Pressure
      • The Scenario
      • Investigation
      • Root Cause and Fix
      • How to Narrate It
    • Scenario: Constraint Ghost
    • STA Interview Q&A Bank
    • STA Interview Q&A Bank (Expanded)
  • Capstone Timing Signoff Lab4
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‹STA Interview Prep
  1. Topics
  2. Static Timing Analysis
  3. STA Interview Prep
  4. Scenario: ECO Under Pressure

Part 10 · Interview Prep · All levels

Scenario: ECO Under Pressure

Three days before tape-out a functional ECO leaves 214 hold violations and 31 setup violations; you have 60 hours and a request to waive the hold ones.

  • 4topics
  • 4lessons

This scenario tests judgement under schedule pressure: what you can fix, what you cannot, what you refuse to waive, and how you plan the remaining hours. It draws on the closure, ECO and regression material of the course. The four lessons give the situation, the investigation, the plan with its arithmetic, and the narration.

Lesson

After it you can...

The Scenario

Restate the situation and the constraints on the plan.

Investigation

Separate fixable endpoints from structural ones.

Root Cause and Fix

Plan the hours: batches, fast loops and full runs.

How to Narrate It

Communicate risk honestly without refusing to help.

Check yourself What is the central tension in this scenario?

Schedule pressure pushes toward a waiver, while the evidence says some endpoints are not fixable by the cheap method and a logic ECO needs the full verification set.

Related topics

  • Next topic: Scenario: Constraint Ghost

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See also

  • STA Whiteboard Framework
  • STA Framework Drills
  • Scenario: MMMC Storm