ASIC Point Explore

Silicon Lab

Protocols Problems

Build a design, hunt its bugs, or repair what fails. Every answer runs on a real simulator.

Build starts from a specification: make it work, then make it small or fast. Bug Hunt asks for the checker or the test that catches broken designs. Repair hands you a failure: find the cause, then fix the design.

01

On-Chip Interconnect Protocols

Bus basics, then the AMBA buses: AXI, APB and AHB.

10 problems

Protocols · P1 Protocol Fundamentals

  1. P1.5.1 The Throughput That Never Rose 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  2. P1.6.1 The FIFO That Overflowed 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  3. P1.11.3 The Beat That Arrived Late 1200 Debug Medium Browser

Protocols · P2 AXI

  1. P2.4.1 RDATA Not Held 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  2. P2.12.1 The Stale Read 1350 Debug Medium Browser
  3. P2.18.4 The Beat That Landed in the Wrong Word 1275 Debug Medium Browser

Protocols · P3 APB

  1. P3.3.1 Stale Read Data 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  2. P3.10.3 The FIFO That Lost Entries 1275 Debug Medium Browser

Protocols · P4 AHB

  1. P4.3.1 The Write That Happened on IDLE 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  2. P4.12.3 The Read That Returned Its Neighbour's Data 1275 Debug Medium Browser
02

Peripheral & Serial Interface Protocols

Serial fundamentals, then UART, SPI and QSPI, I2C and I3C.

7 problems

Module P6 · Protocols · P6 UART

  1. P6.4.2 Locate the First Displaced Sample 1650 Debug Hard Browser
  2. P6.7.3 Find the Lost Frame After Recovery 1650 Debug Hard Browser

Module P7 · Protocols · P7 SPI and QSPI

  1. P7.2.2 Diagnose the Displaced SPI Reply 1200 Debug Medium Browser
  2. P7.8.2 The Program That Crossed a Page 1650 Debug Hard Browser

Module P8 · Protocols · P8 I2C

  1. P8.3.2 The ACK That Outlived Its Slot 1650 Debug Hard Browser
  2. P8.8.2 Why Nine Recovery Clocks Never Arrived 1650 Debug Hard Browser
  3. P8.11.3 Locate the Misread Most-Significant Bit 1650 Debug Hard Browser
03

High-Speed Interface Protocols

The links that carry data off the chip at speed.

Coming soon