System Architecture#

Decomposing complexity into manageable pieces.

System architecture is the practice of breaking a complex design into blocks that can be understood, designed, tested, and modified independently. It happens before schematics, before part selection, and often before any detailed circuit design. The quality of the architecture determines whether the project stays manageable or becomes an entangled mess.

Good architecture makes everything downstream easier — schematic design, layout, testing, and debugging all benefit when blocks are well-defined with clear interfaces. Poor architecture creates coupling that makes every change ripple unpredictably through the system.

What This Section Covers#

• Block Diagrams as Thinking Tools — Using block diagrams as the primary design tool, not just documentation.
• Partitioning Analog, Digital, Power & RF — Separating domains that have fundamentally different design rules and noise sensitivities.
• Interfaces & Boundaries — Defining the contracts between blocks where most design problems actually live.
• Upgrade Paths & Extensibility — Designing for the next version while building the current one.
• Architecture Documentation — Writing down decisions so they survive beyond the moment they were made.
• Avoiding Accidental Complexity — Distinguishing complexity that comes from the problem versus complexity introduced by the solution.