Author: MichaelHWhite

High-Speed PCB for DDR5/DDR6: Your Old DDR4 Layout Rules Are Officially Obsolete

DDR5 changed the memory interface game, and DDR6 is about to raise the stakes again. What used to be a reasonably forgiving parallel bus in DDR3 and DDR4 has become a tightly constrained, high-frequency system where every mil of trace length, every via transition, and every reference plane discontinuity can erode timing margin. Designing a