Capstone Readiness: What to Check Before You Start

A concept-level guide to the patterns worth confirming before starting the Tiny Calculator Engine.

Updated 2026-07-27

The capstone is integration, not invention. Every mechanic it uses — the dual-block FSM pattern, the datapath/control split, the deterministic-check-then-explain slice shape — was already rehearsed in Modules 4 through 6.

Four habits are worth confirming before you start:

  1. Default-at-top. Every combinational block you write should assign a safe default before any case or if narrows it.
  2. Datapath vs. control. A signal that stores or transforms a 4-bit value is datapath; a signal that decides when or which action happens is control, even if it is a single bit.
  3. First-divergence debugging. When a check fails, find the first cycle where actual output stops matching expected, and start your hypothesis there.
  4. Evidence-first explanations. A design or verification explanation should point at specific checks and specific RTL lines, not describe the system in the abstract.

If any of these feel shaky, the readiness check links straight back to the lesson that covers it. That link is informational — nothing in this course blocks you from starting the capstone today.