My apologies for the many questions. Hopefully, someone on this list  
is gracious enough to entertain my naive questions.

----------------------------

I am a student interested in the process of PCB layout and the design  
of high-speed interfaces. I am interested in learning what techniques  
were used in the Balloon board PCB design to ensure the proper  
operation of high speed (>=100Mhz) interfaces to RAM and FLASH. I  
know what the textbooks say about these matters, but I'm interested  
in hearing from people that have actually successfully designed  
around these issues.

Is it enough to just connect the right pins, if the given trace  
lengths are short enough? Or maybe there are certain simple design  
rules that can be followed?

Was the PCB simulated using some sort of transmission line model to  
determine the effectiveness of the high speed lines?

How important is trace width in controlling capacitance and impedance?

Thanks.
___________________________________________________
Cina Hazegh, Graduate Student
University of California, Irvine --  Arts, Computation and Engineering
chazegh@uci.edu  |  http://cinahazegh.com