VLSI frontend training for fresher
VLSI frontend training for freshers
VLSI Front end training for freshers (VG-FEDV) is 6 months course structured to enable BTech/BE and MTech/ME freshers gain in depth exposure to all the aspects of VLSI front end Design and verification. VLSI front end training ensures that a fresher is prepared on all the essential aspects of VLSI front end domain including ASIC flow, advanced digital design, CMOS, SOC design and verification concepts, Verilog, Systemverilog, UVM, Linux, revision management and scripting. Course also includes training on soft skill for effective interview performance.
Lack of fundamentals in advanced digital design, analog design and Verilog for design & verification becomes a major deterrent for freshers in finding right career opportunities. VLSI Front end training course offered in both classroom and online mode ensures that fresher is empowered with all the essential skill set required for various job roles in VLSI front end domain. Course is completely practical oriented with each aspect of course involving multiple hands on projects. All the courses are offered by trainers with 10+ years of relevant experience. Student progress is tracked using 75 detailed assignments covering all the aspects from digital design, VLSI flow, SOC design & verification, RTL coding, Verilog, System verilog, RTL debug, UNIX, and scripting.
VLSI Design flow(ASIC flow) training covers complete ASIC flow exposure from specifications till GDSII including Architecture, Specifications, RTL coding, lint checks, RTL integration, connectivity checks, functional verification, synthesis, Gate level simulations, formal equivalence checks, STA, placement and routing, clock tree synthesis, DFT, custom layout and post silicon validation. SOC Design and verification focus on SOC design concepts, SOC architecture, SOC verification concepts and differences when compared to module level verification.
Advanced Digital Design Training focus on all the digital design concepts including combinational logic, sequential logic, circuit design concepts, memory types and other essential things focused in majority of fresher interviews. Course assume minimal exposure to digital design concepts, it starts from basic concepts till advanced concepts including clock domain crossing, synchronizers, timing violation fixing, etc.
Verilog and RTL coding training focus on all Verilog language constructs from practical usage perspective. Training involves 25+ design coding examples focused in fresher interviews.
Systemverilog training gives fresher with required exposure to advanced functional verification concepts. All language constructs are covered with detailed coding examples involving more than 200 examples. Course also offers exposure to standard on-chip communication protocols and verification IP development for AXI. UVM essentials training will emphasis on UVM language constructs and UVC development for AHB Protocol.
RTL debug training will focus on training student with important debug concepts including schematic tracing, RTL tracing, RTL & TB coding issues, etc.
Linux OS training ensures that student gets accustomed to industry work environment. Training also includes exposure to Makefile, revision management and all essential UNIX concepts.
Scripting training will focus PERL essential concepts. It will help student gain exposure to file management, regular expressions, Object oriented PERL, PERL modules and PERL usage in industry.
Soft skill training will prepare student on how to face interviews effectively, right body language, etc.
Course is also targeted for engineers working in non-VLSI domains and planning to make career in VLSI.
Students planning to pursue complex projects after this course can do by paying a nominal fee. Institute offers more than 40+ other projects based on industry standard protocols like USB3.0, PCIe, UFS, SATA, DDR, DMA, AMBA, Bridge and Ethernet MAC etc. Student can opt for these projects at a nominal fee.
This course is a super set of all the other front end training courses, except of some advanced aspects of UVM not covered in this course. These advanced aspects are not required for a fresher.
- Covers all the topics covered in Verilog, Systemverilog courses
- Covers all the topics of UVM till AHB UVC coding.
ASIC Flow
- Specification
- RTL coding, lint checks
- RTL integration
- Connectivity checks
- Functional Verification
- Synthesis & STA
- Gate level simulations
- Power aware simulations
- Placement and Routing
- DFT
- Custom layout
- Post silicon validation
SOC Design and Verification concepts
- SOC Architecture overview
- SOC design concepts
- SOC verification concepts
- SOC Components
- SOC use cases
- SOC Testbench architecture
- SOC Test Case coding
- SOC verification differences with module verification
Advanced Digital Design concepts
- Digital Design basics
- combinational logic
- sequential logic, FF, latch, counters
- Memories
- Refer to Advanced digital design training page for detailed course contents
Verilog for Design and verification
- Verilog language constructs
- Verilog design coding examples covering more than 20 standard designs
- SystemVerilog for Advanced Verification
- SystemVerilog for Advanced Verification
- Classes : Object Oriented Programming
- Arrays, Data Types, Literals, Operators
- Scheduling Semantics, Inter process Synchronization
- Processes, Threads, Tasks and Functions
- Randomization, Constraints
- Interface, Clocking blocks, Program Block
- Functional Coverage
- Assertion Based Verification
- System Tasks & Functions
- Compiler Directives
- DPI
Verification IP Development
- AXI Protocol Concepts : Features, Signals, Timing Diagrams
- AXI VIP Architecture Development
- VIP Component Coding
- AXI Slave model test case development
- Test Case debugging
ASIC Verification Concepts
- SoC Verification Concepts
- Module Level Verification
- Constrained Random Verification
- Coverage Driven Verification
- Directed Verification
- Assertion Based Verification
UVM for functional verification
- How UVM evolved?
- OVM, AVM, RVM, NVM, eRM
- UVM Testbench Architecture
- UVM Base classes
- UVM Macros
- UVM Messaging
- UVM simulation phases
- TLM 1.0
- Config db, Resource db, Factory
- Sequences, Sequence Library
- Virtual Sequences and virtual sequencers
- Developing scoreboard in UVM
- Developing testcases in UVM
- Command line processor
- UVC development for APB protocol
- UVC development for AHB protocol
- Developing configurable UVC’s
RTL Debug
- Schematic tracing
- RTL tracing
- FIxing RTL and TB syntax and logical errors
Linux
- Shells
- File and directory management
- User administration
- Environment variables
- Commonly used commands
- Shell scripting basics
- SEd and AWK
- Revision management
- Makefiles
PERL/Python Scripting
- PERL Interpreter
- Variables
- File management
- Subroutines
- Regular expressions
- Object oriented PERL
- PERL modules
Soft Skill Training
- Facing interviews effectively
- industry work culture
- Group discussions
Course Assignments
100+ detailed assignments covering all aspects from VLSI Flow, SOC Design, Verilog, Advanced digital design, System verilog, AXI protocol, VIP Development, RTL debug, UNIX and PERL scripting.
| Course | VLSI Front End Training for Freshers |
|---|---|
| Duration | 24 weeks |
| Freshers | Full week course |
| Saturday & Sunday(8:30AM – 4:30PM India time. Monday to Friday(9AM to 1PM). Flexible lab sessions for US Students. | |
| Weekdays sessions will be focused on course assignments, labs and interview focused sessions. | |
| Students also get support on complete project flow during weekdays as well. | |
| Working professionals | Saturday & Sunday(8:30AM – 4:30PM India time. Flexible timings for students attending online from US) |
| 8:30AM – 12:30PM (Theory session offered by trainer) | |
| 1PM – 4:30PM (Lab & tool based session guided by mentor). Students from US will get support in different time. | |
| Students will take the weekday tests and assignments from home. | |
| New batch starts | Every 6 Weeks |
| Fee | INR 36000 (all inclusive) (Classroom training) |
| Tool | Questasim & VCS |
| Mode of training | Classroom training at Institute(ORR, Banaswadi) |
| Tool Access | Access to tool at institute for 12 months |
| Certificate | Issued based on 50% assignment completion as criteria |
| Admission criteria | Student need to undergo evaluation test based on Verilog Digital Design VLSI Technology and Aptitude |
| Assignments | 50 |
| Evaluation tests | 20 |
| Trainer | 12+ Years exp in RTL design & Functional verification |
| Content | Learning Schedule(T : Course Start Date) |
|---|---|
| Advanced Digital Design Concepts | T to T+6th week |
| VLSI Design Flow | T to T+6th week |
| Verilog for Design and Verification | T to T+6th week |
| Systemverilog for functional verification | T+6 to T+16th week |
| UNIX | T+6 to T+16th week |
| SOC Verification Concepts | T+6 to T+16th week |
| UVM Essentials | T+14 to T+19th week |
| Python Scripting | T+16 to T+19th week |
| Softskill Training | T+19th week |
| Weekly learning schedule | |
|---|---|
| Day | Content |
| Saturday | 8 hours of training & labs |
| Sunday | 8 hours of training & labs |
| Monday | revision of topics covered during Saturday & Sunday |
| Tuesday | Verilog & SV labs and assignments |
| Wednesday | Verilog & SV labs and assignments |
| Thursday | Digital design & Aptitude training |
| Friday | Break |
Below is the list of projects student will be doing as part of five months training. Institute provides guidance(trainer will be doing all these projects) on all these projects. If student gains expertise in these projects, learning will be on-par with a 2 to 3 years experienced engineer, in terms of all the skill set required. Student can work on additional projects to enhance resume for experienced job role.
By working on below projects, student will get familiar with:
- majority of standard protocols(AXI, AHB, APB, SPI, I2C, UART, etc)
- Industry standard simulation tools like Questasim & VCS
- will gain debug expertise
- RTL coding and TB development
Project#1: Memory Controller Functional Verification using System Verilog
Design supports SDRAM, SSRAM, Flash & Synchronous Chip select devices. As part of this design verification, we created testbench using SV to generate scenarios targeting all types of supported memories for different possible combinations & different sizes supported. We also developed monitor, reference model & checker as part self-checking testbench implementation.
Responsibilities
- Listing down design features
- Setting up Testbench and testbench component coding.
- Testplan development
- Testcase coding
- Regression setup and debug
Project#2: Verification IP Development for AXI3.0 protocol using SV
AXI3.0 is an AMBA protocol used for high performance applications. AXI3.0 supports various features like out of order transactions, burst transfers, cacheble and bufferable transactions few among various features supported. VIP was developed to work as both master and slave. Developed all the VIP components and validated VIP for various AXI features.
Responsibilities:
- Develop VIP Architecture to be compatible with both master and slave behavior
- List down AXI features and develop testplan for validating AHB VIP
- Develop AXI VIP components
- Integrated AXI Master VIP with slave VIP
- Develop sanity testcases and debug the same
- Develop functional tests and debug the same
- Regression setup and closing of VIP validation using coverage criteria
Project#3: UVC Development for AHB2.0 protocol using SV & UVM
AHB2.0 is an AMBA protocol used for medium performance applications. I was part of UVC development team. UVC was developed to work as both master and slave. Developed all the UVC components and validated UVC for various AHB features.
Responsibilities:
- Develop UVC Architecture to be compatible with both master and slave behavior
- List down AHB features and develop testplan for validating AHB UVC
- Develop AHB UVC components
- Integrated AHB Master UVC with slave UVC
- Develop sanity testcases and debug the same
- Develop functional tests and debug the same
- Regression setup and closing of UVC validation using coverage criteria
Project#4 : Ethernet Switch design verification using SV
Ethernet switch is a design with multiple ingress and multiple egress ports. Switch parses the packets coming on ingress port and routes them on corresponding egress port based on Destination address. I was responsible for setting up the complete TB environment including development of various TB components, reference model and checker.
Responsibilities:
- Develop TB Architecture to be compatible with configurable number of ingress and egress ports
- List down design features and develop testplan
- Develop and integrate TB components.
- Develop sanity testcases and debug the same
- Develop functional tests and debug the same
- Regression setup and closing of functional verification using coverage criteria.
Project#5 : Design & verification of Synchronous & Asynchronous FIFO using Verilog
Synchronous & Asynchronous FIFO are used to connect components transmitting and receiving data at different frequencies. I was responsible for developing the RTL and functional verification of the same using Verilog
Project#6 : Design & verification of SPI Controller using SV
SPI Controller is design block acts as an interface between SPI slaves and rest of the system. SPI controller has 2 interfaces, one is APB interface used for configuring the SPI registers, address and data, another is SPI interface used for connecting with SPI slaves. SPI uses SCLK, MOSI, MISO and CS to connect master to slave. I was responsible for developing SPI Controller RTL code and verification of the same using SV.
Responsibilities
- Listing down design features
- Setting up Testbench and testbench component coding.
- Testplan development
- Testcase coding
Project#7 : Design & verification of Interrupt controller
Interrupt controller is a design used to collect interrupts from various peripheral controllers and forwards the interrupts to processor on priority basis. This continues till all interrupts are serviced by processor. It interfaces with processor on one side using APB interface and another side with peripheral controller from which it gets the interrupts. I was responsible for functional verification of the same using SV.
Project#8 : Design & verification of I2C controller
I2C Controller is a design block used for interfacing with multiple I2C slaves. I2C controller has 2 interfaces, one is APB interface used for configuring the I2C registers, another is I2C interface using for connecting with I2C slaves. I2C uses 2 ports for connecting master to slave.
Project#9 : Design & verification of PISO and SIPO using Verilog
PISO(Parallel In Serial Out) and SIPO (Serial In Parallel Out) are required for Serialising and De-serialising data at PHY interface. These has two interfaces for data driving from parallel interface on one side to serial interface on another side and vice versa. It collects the serial incoming data and pushes in to shift register and drives it out to upper layers as a parallel data. It collects parallel incoming data from upper layers and drives it on serial interface. Design also includes buffer to achieve non-blocking data transfers in both transmit and receive paths.
Responsibilities
- RTL Coding for both transmit and receive paths
- RTL integration
- Setting up Testbench and testbench component coding.
- Testplan development
- Testcase coding
Why Course Fee is less compared to other institutes?
Institute is driven by philosophy of ‘Quality education at affordable fee’. Education should be affordable to majority of the people. Even otherwise basic courses like Digital Design, Verilog, SV, UVM, UNIX and Scripting all together can’t cost 1 lakh+. These are just languages and some projects.
Instead of asking us why charging less, please ask other institutes why charging so much for such basic skill set training? Let me tell you, tools are not costly as told by training institutes.
What are the Course Prerequisites?
- Expertise to C programming
- Exposure to Digital design basics
My college curriculum covers most of these topics, why should I opt for this course?
Course content covered in college(Btech/Mtech) curriculum is mostly theoretical and does not cover practical aspects. This course helps address that gap.
Does course cover practical sessions on SystemVerilog usage?
- Each aspect of course is supported by lot of practical examples
- Ethernet switch project will be used as reference design for learning all SystemVerilog constructs
- All SystemVerilog course examples, AXI VIP, and Memory Controller Verification environment implemented from scratch as part of sessions
- Dedicated full day lab sessions to ensure student does complete testbench development from scratch
Is it possible to cover so many things in 19 weeks?
- We have done it for 30 Batches so far, next batch is no exception
- Course requires student to spend at least 6+ hours of time a week to revise the concepts
What if I miss few sessions during course?
Each session of course is recorded, missed session videos will be shared
Course has started few weeks back, can I still join the course in between?
- Yes, You will have option to view the recorded videos of course for the sessions missed
- You will have option to repeat the course any time in next 1 year
Do you offer support after course completion?
- Yes, Course fee also includes support for doubt clarification sessions even after course completion
- You have option to mail your queries
- Option to meet trainer in person to clarify doubts
- Multiple trainers with 10 years of average experience of working in Functional Verification domain across mobile, networking, high speed peripheral domains.
- Experience of working on functional verification of Multiple Complex SOCs, multiple Subsystems
- Experience of working on multiple complex module level projects
After the successful completion of the course certificate will be issued.