Introduction
As the US federal bank has relaxed interest rates, companies are gearing up for hiring after a tough recession. The hiring freeze phase had the most impact on freshers and why not? VLSI is a highly niche domain and most recruits in the industry either people with prior experience or MTech graduates.
In the competitive landscape of the job market, even for those pursuing an MTech, it becomes imperative to distinguish oneself from the crowd. This is crucial because the market is saturated with candidates boasting one year of experience. These are all eagerly vying for any opportunity that arises.
In the same context, we bring you five blogs that will be instrumental in your VLSI preparation journey.
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1. Vlsi4freshers
This is one of the most comprehensive sites for the preparation of placements in VLSI companies. It covers all the elementary topics in its navigation bar, making it an easy-to-use site for freshers about to start preparation. The site also includes various interview questions asked by companies like Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Synopsys, AMD, etc.
Link – http://vlsi4freshers
2. HDLBits
Completed that Verilog course? It’s time to put your concepts into practice. HDLBits is a Verilog practice website with a collection of meticulously selected questions for clearing Verilog from basics to advanced. Each problem requires you to design a small circuit in Verilog. HDLBits gives you immediate feedback on the circuit module you submit. We check the correctness of your circuit by simulating it with a set of test vectors and comparing the results to our reference solution.
Read More: 5 Career Paths in VLSI Design for Beginners – techovedas
How to use HDLBits:
1.Choose a problem: Browse the problem set or go to the first problem.
2.Write a solution in Verilog
3.Submit, simulate, and debug if necessary
Link – HDLBits
3. Chipverify
This website is a go-to for those who want to enter the verification role in the VLSI industry.
The website is divided into five parts:
Digital basics
Verilog
Verification
System Verilog
UVM
The site is a blog cum tutorial. Those with no prior knowledge of Verilog/verification can read the blogs headed as ‘Basic concepts’ and then move on to concepts of System Verilog and testbenches.
Links – http://ChipVerify , Verification Guide
4. Physicaldesign4u
Physical design is one of the most important aspects of MTech interviews. Most candidates prepare for verification roles, which makes the field very competitive. On the other hand, if one makes motivated efforts to cover physical design, it will be a huge differentiating factor.
The website covers all aspects of Physical design, including the usual ASIC flow from floor-planning to Physical Verification, as well as novel topics like Sanity checks, width violation, Clock buffers, etc.
The website also includes interview questions asked in Physical design topics. The best aspect of this website is that it explains concepts in a question-answer format.
Link – physicaldesign4u.com
5. GeeksforGeeks
You might be wondering why we have added this DSA questions (data structure and algorithms) website here. The answer is Pointers!
The concept of Pointers in the C language is one of the most asked in digital domain online assessments. This is because variables in Verilog are directly assigned to registers. This involves concepts of memory referencing and hence the role of pointers.
Apart from Pointers, basic C language syntax, structures and unions, datatypes are essential topics to be covered. Companies often ask output of a code snippet questions.
Link – Pointer Basics in C, geeksforgeeks.org
Apart from the above blogs, a book named “Digital Integrated Circuits: A design perspective” by Jan M. Rabaey is recommended for concept clarity. The language is easy to understand, and chapters 3, 4, and 5 are important from an interview point of view.
Disclaimer: Most of the above websites are recommended for the Digital role. For the Analog domain, the best preparation path is to complete Analog electronics coursework taught in BTech and then attempt GATE previous year questions. Op-Amps are one of the most important concepts for the Analog domain and we would soon bring a detailed article for Analog. Stay tuned!
Read more: The 7 Domains of Semiconductor Design for beginners
Conclusion
These blogs provide more than enough material for the theoretical aspects of placements. Apart from this Candidates must also showcase projects implementing the concepts prepared. Documenting projects on GitHub is good practice. It gives the interviewer an impression of an organized mindset. Thanks for reading and all the best!
