FPGA & HDL — question 10 of 10
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Your 32-bit multiply-accumulate chain is the critical path, failing timing by 1.5 ns at your target frequency. You're considering inserting a pipeline register in the middle of the multiplier to break the path in half. The problem: the FSM that issues operands to this block currently assumes the result is valid on the very next clock cycle, and that same FSM also handles bus arbitration for other requesters in a tight state sequence. Walk through the tradeoffs of adding this pipeline stage and what you'd actually have to change to make it correct.