Faster computations, faster communication speeds, faster everything. Today electronics can use data rates of several gigabits per second. At such speed wires and tracks are far from being perfect, bugs and glitches may arise because of them. Even low-speed designs are not safe and can encounter high-speed problems because they use high-speed capable chips.

While the electronic CAD software KiCad has the tools to design high-speed boards, there is no tool to validate them. The usual way is to apply all good practice rules, even if they are sometimes overly conservative and might waste some board space. The layout plays an important part in both PCB performance and cost. A PCB simulator, integrated into KiCad, would help designers to find their balance between the two. This presentation is a short introduction to IBIS and FEM, tools that will most certainly be needed for such high-speed simulations, and provides application examples.