Routing Topology Strategies
The physical topology of signal routing—how traces connect drivers to receivers—has a profound impact on signal integrity, timing, and overall system performance. Routing topology strategies encompass the various architectural approaches for connecting one or more signal sources to one or more loads, each with distinct electrical characteristics, trade-offs, and application domains. The choice of topology affects impedance matching, reflection behavior, signal propagation delay, power consumption, and the complexity of both the physical layout and the signaling protocols.
Modern high-speed digital systems employ several fundamental routing topologies, including point-to-point connections for maximum signal integrity, multi-drop architectures for bus-based systems, daisy-chain configurations for serial memory interfaces, fly-by topologies for DDR memory, and various tree and star configurations for clock distribution and other specialized applications. Each topology presents unique signal integrity challenges and requires specific design considerations for impedance control, termination, stub management, and timing synchronization.