New Year, New (Smarter) You!

Gallop into the Lunar New Year with faster timing, quieter nets, and fewer headaches!

The lanterns are up. The snacks are endless. Someone's aunt is asking why you're still debugging timing at midnight. Yes—it's the Lunar New Year, a season of fresh starts, loud celebrations, and wildly optimistic promises like:

"This year, I will *not* let congestion ruin my life."

And since we're celebrating the Year of the Horse, it's time to embrace speed, energy, and forward motion—which conveniently also happens to be the goal of every physical design flow. In many Asian traditions, the horse represents momentum, intelligence, and progress. In engineering terms, that translates to:

 Fewer timing surprises
 Cleaner routing
 Less noise (on silicon and in your brain)

Instead of long training sessions requiring heroic amounts of caffeine, I created these four YouTube Shorts to deliver practical VLSI insights in just a couple of minutes. Quick enough to watch between meetings, tool runs, or dumplings.

Training Videos that Respect Your Time

 Four YouTube shorts. Zero rambling. Maximum "Ohhh, that's why." These one to two-minute YouTube shorts are designed to teach one idea, clearly, quickly, and without putting you into low‑power mode.

Targeting Critical Nets with NDRs

Timing closed everywhere… except that one path. You know the one. It laughs at your constraints.

This short explains how Non‑Default Rules (NDRs) can give critical nets extra width and spacing—without turning your design into a routing parking lot. Think of it as VIP lane access for your most important signals.

Glitch and Crosstalk Noise (a.k.a. "Why Did That Net Do That?")

Noise is like the flu bug: it spreads fast and causes problems.

In just 60 seconds, this video breaks down glitch noise vs. crosstalk, how they show up in routed designs, and why they can cause functional or timing failures—often when you least expect it. Short, sharp, and mercifully jargon‑free.

What Happens When the Router Detects SI Issues

Ever wonder what your router is actually doing when it flags signal integrity issues?

This short peeks behind the curtain at SI‑aware routing, showing how tools dynamically balance signal integrity, timing, and routability—so you don't have to play design whack‑a‑mole.

Placement Blockages and Halos: Design Boundaries That Save Your Sanity

Blockages and halos aren't about being restrictive. They're about being strategic. This video explains how they:

• Reduce local congestion
• Protect macro pin access
• Prevent timing‑killing detours

Basically, they're the design equivalent of telling cells, "Please don't stand there."

New Year, New Insights, New (Smarter) You

Think of these short videos as lucky red envelopes for your brain: small, efficient, and surprisingly valuable. So this New Year, make a resolution you'll actually keep: learn faster, stress less, and let your designs run with the confidence of a horse at full gallop.

Find more videos on the "Cadence Education Training Bytes" YouTube channel.

If you would like to delve deeper into the topics, you can do so via a Cadence ASK account. Here you will find Training Byte videos and online training available 24/7. Most of our training courses also have an accelerated learning and digital badge option.

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