RE: Number of Significant Digits


Subject: RE: Number of Significant Digits
From: Dagostino, Tom (tom_dagostino@mentorg.com)
Date: Wed Feb 27 2002 - 11:08:57 PST


We are building models that are intended to work with circuit boards. Circuit boards are, at best, can be controlled to about 3% Zo, at worst around 20%. Having a model with more than 5 digits of resolution (I've seen 12 to 15) seems like a lot of overkill.

Tom Dagostino
Modeling Manager
Mentor Graphics Corp.
SAS
tom_dagostino@mentor.com
503-685-1613

-----Original Message-----
From: Dunbar, Tony
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 10:18 AM
To: 'ibis@eda.org'
Subject: RE: Number of Significant Digits

Do you mean before or after the decimal point? In my experience, at least up
to E+16 seems popular for diode clamp currents!

Sorry :)

More seriously, I don't think there is a rule for this, except for the
golden rule of understanding the application of the DUT and generating a
model accordingly. That is, if you're modeling, say, a clock driver that is
intended to be used in a sub-nanosecond tightly controlled timing
environment, something much better than the nearest 1mA or nearest 1nS is
necessary.

I think if s2ibis is used this is something you will setup and 4-sigdigs (or
sometimes min of 3) seems common and probably reasonable, depending on the
units. For example, you could go to 3-sigdigs with units of "A" and/or go to
3-sigdigs with units of "mA" and have 1000X difference in resolution.
Similar thing in the package section for R, L and C and in the waveform
tables for the time units. Of course, you could probably go to more and then
the simulation setup or demands would be such that it was completely
unnecessary.

IMO, I would say that within the region of typical working of the buffer -
say VCC+0.5 volts down to GND-0.5 volts - I would say mA to 4-sigdigs (i.e.
0.1uA resolution) would be good enough with voltage steps of the order of
50mV (to limit interpolation) in the pullup/pulldown tables. In the waveform
tables, nS to 3-sigdigs (i.e. 1pS resolution) is good, with voltages down to
3-, maybe 4-sigdigs.

Interesting to see what others have to say. Again, let the intended
application of the DUT be your determining factor.

Regards,
Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: Lewis, Tony L [mailto:tony.l.lewis@intel.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 10:57 AM
To: 'ibis@eda.org'
Subject: Number of Significant Digits

Hello Everyone,

        I am wondering if there are any rules or common methods for deciding
how many significant digits should be used when creating an IBIS model?

Thank you,

Tony Lewis
Desktop Platform Group
Email: <mailto:tony.l.lewis@intel.com>



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