VLSI Interview Preparation Guide
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Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) frequently Asked Questions by expert members with experience in VLSI. So get preparation for the Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) job interview

17 VLSI Questions and Answers:

Table of Contents

VLSI Interview Questions and Answers
VLSI Interview Questions and Answers

1 :: Have you studied pipelining? List the 5 stages of a 5 stage pipeline. Assuming 1 clock per stage, what is the latency of an instruction in a 5 stage machine? What is the throughput of this machine?

1.Instruction fetch
2.decode instruction and read register files
3.execute
4.data to access from memory
5.write back

throughput is the total amount of work done in a given time,

2 :: Explain How many bit combinations are there in a byte?

1 byte means 8 bits so 256 com

3 :: Suppose For a single computer processor computer system, what is the purpose of a processor cache and describe its operation?

the purpose of cache is to reduce the average time to
access the main memory, the operation is like that when the
CPU wants to access the data, it first check the cache, if
an entry can be found with a tag matching that of desired
data, CPU gets the data from cache directly, otherwise, the
data will be copied into cache for next access.

4 :: Do you know MESI?

Is a widely used cache coherency and memory coherence
protocol introduced by Intel. Modified Exclusive Shared
Invalid are the protocol States.

M means value has been modified from main memory and the
cache is required to write the data back to main memory,
before permitting any other read of the main memory state.
(ITS DIRTY)

E IS CLEAN: Value Match with main memory

S Cache may be stored in other caches of the machine

I Invalid

5 :: What are the main issues associated with multiprocessor caches and how might you solve them?

issue : Cache coherency or Data coherency. The problem is
all the processors cache should have exactly the same
shared data (cohenrent data). and there are races possible
with multiprocessors.

possible solution: use one central cache controller which
will get all the read/write requests from all the
processors and peripherals so that it can make sure there
are no races and cache coherency is maintained.

6 :: What types of high speed CMOS circuits have you designed?

Dynamic CMOS ckts and high speed multipliers using
BOOTh/Mod-Booth algorithm.

8 :: If not into production, how far did you follow the design and why did not you see it into production?

Design is a general term,applicable in every field of
engineering.however production is termed as to follow up
the steps after design to make product available in the
market.

9 :: What is the most complicated/valuable program you written in C/C++?

Matrix

10 :: Explain the difference between write through and write back cache?

Write Through. After writing in cache memory, main memory is
updated too inmediatly to mantain reliability

Write Back After writing in cache memory a flag bit called
dirty bit is set. When this value need to be replaced that
bit is check, if it is set then the value is taken to main
memory

11 :: What is the term snooping?

Let's take an example of different processors(along with
their independent caches) sharing the same memory system.

Now if this memory is a Read-Write memory and let's say
that one of the processors writes to this memory after some
data computation, all the processors need to update their
individual cache copies of the now modified memory. To do
this the concept of snooping is implemented. cache snooping
is the means by which each cache constantly
monitors/detects the bus for any write to a memory location
and if a write is found, it invalidates it current copy of
cached memory data and copies the new content over.

12 :: Describe a finite state machine that will detect three consecutive coin tosses (of one coin) that results in heads?

State machine to detect 3 consecutive heads appearing in
multiple tosses;

state 1 : initial state
As long as the toss results in TAIL , in this state
If the toss results in HEAD go to state 2
state 2 : HEAD1 resulted
in the next toss , If TAIL is resulted go to
the initial state1 . If HEAD is resulted go to
state3.
state3 : HEAD2 is resulted
in the next toss , If TAIL is resulted go to
the initial state1 . If HEAD is resulted go to
state4.
state4 : HEAD3 is resulted and this is the final state
As long as the HEAD results in each next toss
be in state 4. If any toss results in TAIL go to
initial state1

13 :: In what cases do you need to double clock a signal before presenting it to a synchronous state machine?

if the input signal is asynchronous with the clock (state
machine clock), then you need to double clock the same
signal to synchronize with the state machine clock.

14 :: You have a driver that drives a long signal & connects to an input device. At the input device there is either overshoot, undershoot or signal threshold violations, what can be done to correct this problem?

This is a signal integrity question for board designers.
there are two types of termination schemes viz. series and
parallel termination. series termination is where a resistor
of small value ( rule of thumb 1/2 of characteristic
impedance of the trace ) placed near the source ( near
driver). the parallel termination is a combination of two
resister ( rule of thumb twice the char. impedance f the
trace) placed near the destination ( input) where one
resistor connects the signal trace to the VCC and other
connects to the GNd.

15 :: What is VHDL and/or Verilog?

vhdl is very high speep integrated chips hardware
descripted language and verilog is to verify logic

16 :: What are the total number of lines written by you in C/C++? What compiler was used?

here we use the lines depends on the programme.But we have
65536 lines which are available in it

17 :: What is the difference between = and == in C?

'=' in c is the assignment opperator.whereas '==' is the
logical equality operator.