Jeff, You said it much better than I was inclined to. Thanks. As for leading edge designs using an auto-router, the guys spend nearly as much time working the constraint table as it would take to lay it out by hand and then it can be done over and over. But they still get those annoying leftover nets that auto-router chokes on, reducing them to a miniumum is their objective. "Loyer, Jeff" <jeff.loyer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: I think folks are missing Bill's point. I don't think he's saying that the design is going to break at 2 mils routing difference, only that he can easily attain a maximum 1 mil delta, so he uses that as his constraint. If his CAD folks balked at that number, he'd probably adjust accordingly and, if it got close to having significant impact, would do a more detailed analysis. This is very similar to what we've done for common-clock FSB signals: tell our CAD folks to match them within 10 mils (or some number), even though we know we can absorb more. But, 10 mils is easily attainable, and guarantees essentially no skew due to length differences. Granted, it's a little more work on CAD's part, but the tradeoff is I don't have to do a grand analysis to figure out exactly how close they HAVE to be matched, and then worry about whether my analysis was correct (and require subsequent validation in the lab, etc.).=20 This is about compromises, and where you put your energy into in-depth analysis. If you can easily do 1 mil spacing, no problem. It's a little tighter than I'd generally specify, but it's not absurd, either. If you're using an auto-router (that's surprising to me, I didn't think leading-edge designs could use them), you probably have different constraints. Jeff Loyer ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu --------------------------------- Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu