Described is a system and method of designing a length of an electrical trace used to implement a point-to-point serial link for conveying a digital signal between a transmitter and a receiver. A trace segment of the electrical trace is identified. The trace segment has a first endpoint determined by a first impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link and a second endpoint determined by a second impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link. A restricted length is calculated for the trace segment based on a propagation delay of the signal along the trace segment and a frequency of the signal. A length of the trace segment is set to be unequal to the restricted length.