kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

Øyvind,

On this topic, I think we need major input from Jean-Pierre.

He has the best perspective on the ramifications of a change like this. 

Just as one example of many: 

1) what happens to the internal cell based autorouter's memory requirements if we were to use an internal unit which had 10 times greater granularity? 10 x 10 would mean that autorouter would need 100 times more memory, and might actually operate 100 times slower. (How important is the autorouter anymore?)


I think your help in gathering data is invaluable, and I certainly don't want to discourage you. But please be patient and realize that for a decision this large, gravitating to the first option that comes to mind is not likely to be the best option.


I'd be surprised if I have any more to say about this for awhile. I'm hoping Jean-Pierre can be involved in the discussion, and I hope it is a discussion that involves tabulating some of the pros and cons of a number of alternatives. It may be necessary to actually define some terms, so we don't go talking past each other, such as:


granularity, engineering units, etc.


Dick