@Leonardo:
The latest cookbook example for JTAG is lot more extensive than your example. It also includes fitter-specific constraints, implying these *do* have effect?
--- Quote Start ---
if { $use_fitter_specific_constraint && [string equal quartus_fit
$::TimeQuestInfo(nameofexecutable)] } {
# Define a different set of timing spec to influence place-and-route
# result in the jtag clock domain. The slacks outside of FPGA are
# maximized.
}
--- Quote End ---
Our JTAG hardware routing is nothing special, and we always use USB Blaster I which only supports 6 MHz. Considering each clock cycle is a whopping 166 ns, I find it hard to believe that JTAG constraints could pose an issue at all, but they do. I conclude then that the constraints (sometimes adversely) affect the FPGA logic.