Short answer – Very Important !
Longer Answer – Let’s talk about design of a motherboard using just digital logic.
- I have to calculate heat dissipation of my components and spacing from each other in placement on the motherboard. Lots of Thermo analysis!
- I have to design the impedance of critical lines like the clocks when laying it on the motherboard’s PCB. Pull out those EM and Calculus books!
- I have to calculate the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of the motherboard. Yea statistics!
- I have to calculate the loading of output and the capacitance of the loads it is driving.
- I have to calculate costs of parts at time of build taking into account their availability at the time of build.