Minutes, IBIS Quality Task Group

07 May 2019

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

ROLL CALL

Intel Corp.                         Michael Mirmak
Mentor, a Siemens Business          Arpad Muranyi
Signal Integrity Software:        * Mike LaBonte
SPISim                              Wei-hsing Huang
Teraspeed Labs:                   * Bob Ross
Zuken USA:                        * Lance Wang

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

Review of previous meeting minutes:
Minutes from the April 30 meeting were reviewed.  Bob Ross moved to approve the minutes
with correction as noted, Lance Wang seconded.  Without objection the minutes were
approved.


ARs:
- AR: Mike LaBonte to write IBISCHK bug report to warn for negative Rx_Receiver_Sensitivity
  - Done
- AR: Bob Ross to ask developer for an IBIS-ISS parser estimate.
  - Not done yet.


IBISCHK700 parser development:
Bob Ross said there has been no report from developer.  He noted that there have been
task group emails asking questions about the parser, which could lead to change requests.

New IBISCHK bugs:
Mike showed and described a new bug report for negative Rx_Receiver_Sensitivity values.
He said it was difficult to word the proposed warning message, partly because we do
not really know how various tools currently would deal with negative values. He was
not aware of any existing IBIS-AMI models with negative Rx_Receiver_Sensitivity. Bob
Ross said in a recent discussion, no one could remember how a negative value got into
an Rx_Receiver_Sensitivity example in the IBIS specification. We agreed this would
be bug204.

AR: Mike LaBonte to send bug204.txt to Bob Ross


IBIS-ISS parser discussion:
Bob Ross felt that IBIS-ISS parsing should not be built into in IBISCHK.  Mike LaBonte
felt performance would be better with large numbers of ISS files, if it was built into
IBISCHK.  Bob was concerned about the development cost.  Mike noted that Michael Cohen
had made an argument for increasing the parser source code license price.  Bob said
some have purchased each parser version, and to some degree they have paid for the
same code repeatedly.  Mike said they were paying for long term use of the source.
Bob said we could include the source license with an increased IBIS Open Forum
membership price, but licensees would then lose their license if they ceased to be
members.  Mike said that would similar to term based licensing, and he felt we should
not put ourselves in a position of enforcing source code usage.  Bob added that we do
not have license code built in.  Mike said it could take a long time to recover costs
if we found a need to raise the price after issuing licenses at $2,500 this year, it
would probably be at least 3 years before the next major IBISCHK release would appear.
Bob added that IBIS dues had remained at only $900 for a long time.

Mike said a motion to set the parser price would be needed in the next Open Forum meeting.
Bob said a signed license agreement was required, and that needed to have the price.
Mike said the agreement would be posted on the IBISCHK7 web page.
He asked when we ask people to sign the agreements.
Bob described the usual sequence.


Mike LaBonte moved to adjourn. Bob Ross seconded. Without objection the meeting ended.

Meeting ended: 11:52 ET

Next meeting May 14, 2019