> Why? Via doesn't have much more inductance than a piece of trace, > does it?
At high enough frequencies, traces are waveguides, not just conductors. Vias have nontrivial geometry relative to the signal. That reminds me of another optimization I'd like to implement in the future. Instead of corners, treat all traces like elastic bands, so that they end up as sweeping curves (lines+arcs) with no corners at all (except for 3-trace nodes). I want this myself just because it makes the board look pretty, but I wonder if gentle curves provide better waveguide performance than corners?
