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CDCVerification
CDC Pitfalls & How to Fix Them
Metastability, data loss, and the synchronizers that keep async designs alive.
MasterVLSI Team·February 5, 2026· 7 min
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// CDC7 min
CDC Pitfalls & How to Fix Them
Feb 5, 2026 · MasterVLSI Team
The three CDC sins
- Single-flop sync of a multi-bit bus → guaranteed data corruption.
- Missing handshake on a control signal → glitches into the destination domain.
- Reset asserted asynchronously, deasserted asynchronously → recovery/removal violations.
The fixes
Two-flop synchronizers for control bits. Gray-code counters across domains. Async FIFOs for high-throughput data. Always use a reset synchronizer.
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