Minutes, IBIS Quality Committee

20 Sep 2016

11:00-12:00 EST (08:00-09:00 PST)

ROLL CALL

eASIC:                              David Banas
Ericsson:                           Anders Ekholm
Intel:                              Michael Mirmak
                                    Eugene Lim
IO Methodology:                   * Lance Wang
Signal Integrity Software:        * Mike LaBonte
Teraspeed Labs:                   * Bob Ross
Visteon:                            Preetesh Rathod

Everyone in attendance marked by *

NOTE: "AR" = Action Required.

-----------------------MINUTES ---------------------------
Mike LaBonte conducted the meeting.

Call for IBIS related patent disclosures:

- None

Call for opens:

- None

ARs:

- Bob ask Atul the popup dialog on Windows for bug 178 and 179 tests.
  - Done. 

- Bob ask Atul about new error for no DLL file extension.
  - Done.

- Mike add comments to CMPNT, DLY, MSPEC sections.
  - No new progress.

- Lance add comments to EBD section.
  - No new progress.

- Bob add comments to CIRCUIT section.
  - No new progress.


IBIS Parser Development:
- Mike: When a 64 bit IBISCHK opens a 32 bit DLL, Windows shows an error dialog.
  - Atul found a function to disable that, but it affects any software the
    parser is embedded.
  - We might disable the error dialog before opening the DLL and restoring after.
- Bob: We have used empty DLL files for bug testcases.
  - Those will fail now.
- Mike: We could use the DLLs Atul made.
- Bob: We can't issue a new IBISCHK with popups.
- Mike: Atul said the fix is different for each Windows version.
  - I suggested supporting Windows 7 and up.
- Bob: Agree, that seems like a good compromise.

- Bob: Do the regression tests run OK on Linux?
- Mike: Yes, but had to run manually.
  - There are no popups.

- Mike: Should we ask Synopsys, Zuken, and ANSYS about platform support?
- Bob: Zuken asked if we should drop 32 bit Linux.
- Mike: It costs very little to support that.

BUG 183:
- Mike showed BUG 183 from Michael Mirmak, updated by Bob Sep 19.
- Bob: The Example1 error is correct but the guidance is wrong.
  - E4641 - Example1: Either Format/Value or Default should be specified
  - The Usage is Out, so only a Value should be used.
  - Example2 is correct.
  - For Example3 Default is illegal for Usage Out.
- Mike: Why is Example2 included?
- Bob: To show it is fixed.
  - I set it to Annoying/Low.
  - Either it needs a new message or a variable message.
  - A new message would be better.

BUG 181:
- Bob: A non-ASCII quote is causing 5 strange messages.
- Mike: Maybe it could give the first error and stop there, instead of
  substiting a space.
  - Or it should give the character position of the bad character.
- Bob: I cut and paste a clean file and still had this problem.
  - We should change the message to suggest saving as TEXT format.
- Mike It should stop after that, not convert to space.
- Bob: I don't mind checking for other errors.
- Mike: Programmers get used to fixing one error at a time.
- Disagree, it is best to report all known errors.

- Mike: Why do line numbers start at 0?

AR: Bob ask Atul about AMI file line numbers starting at 0.


BUG 182:
- Bob: Files on Executable lines must not have paths, but this is not checked.
  - This is for either the .dll or .ami
  - We should enforce a rule that files are not in subdirectories.
  - We can say 
- Mike: IBIS states that the .dll and .ami must be in the same directory
- Bob: We can simply check for slash and backslash.
  - Michael Mirmak has suggested supporting subdirectories.

- Bob: It needs to be changed to Open, not Will Not Fix


Meeting ended: 11:58 ET

Next meeting September 27, 2016