IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 16 March 2010

Members (asterisk for those attending):
  Adge Hawes, IBM
* Ambrish Varma, Cadence Design Systems
  Anders Ekholm, Ericsson
* Arpad Muranyi, Mentor Graphics Corp.
  Barry Katz, SiSoft
* Bob Ross, Teraspeed Consulting Group
  Brad Brim, Sigrity
  Brad Griffin, Cadence Design Systems
  Chris Herrick, Ansoft
  Chris McGrath, Synopsys
* Danil Kirsanov, Ansoft
  David Banas, Xilinx
  Deepak Ramaswany, Ansoft
  Donald Telian, consultant
  Doug White, Cisco Systems
* Eckhard Lenski, Nokia-Siemens Networks
  Eckhard Miersch, Sigrity
  Essaid Bensoudane, ST Microelectronics
* Fangyi Rao, Agilent
  Ganesh Narayanaswamy, ST Micro
  Gang Kang, Sigrity
  Hemant Shah, Cadence Design Systems
  Ian Dodd, consultant
  Jerry Chuang, Xilinx
  Joe Abler, IBM
* John Angulo, Mentor Graphics
  John Shields, Mentor Graphics
* Ken Willis, Sigrity
  Kumar Keshavan, Sigrity
  Lance Wang, Cadence Design Systems
  Luis Boluna, Cisco Systems
  Michael Mirmak, Intel Corp.
* Mike LaBonte, Cisco Systems
  Mike Steinberger, SiSoft
  Mustansir Fanaswalla, Xilinx
  Patrick O'Halloran, Tiburon Design Automation
  Paul Fernando, NCSU
  Pavani Jella, TI
* Radek Biernacki, Agilent (EESof)
* Randy Wolff, Micron Technology
  Ray Komow, Cadence Design Systems
  Richard Mellitz, Intel
  Richard Ward, Texas Instruments
  Samuel Mertens, Ansoft
  Sam Chitwood, Sigrity
  Sanjeev Gupta, Agilent
  Shangli Wu, Cadence Design Systems
  Sid Singh, Extreme Networks
  Stephen Scearce, Cisco Systems
  Steve Kaufer, Mentor Graphics
  Steve Pytel, Ansoft
  Syed Huq, Cisco Systems
  Syed Sadeghi, ST Micro
  Ted Mido, Synopsys
  Terry Jernberg, Cadence Design Systems
* Todd Westerhoff, SiSoft
  Vladimir Dmitriev-Zdorov, Mentor Graphics
  Vikas Gupta, Xilinx
  Vuk Borich, Agilent
* Walter Katz, SiSoft
* Wenyi Jin, LSI Logic
  Zhen Mu, Mentor Graphics

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Opens:

- None

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Call for patent disclosure:

- No one declared a patent.

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Review of ARs:

- Arpad: Write a clarification BIRD to discuss accuracy issues related to the 
  various AMI clock_tick algorithms in an IBIS-AMI DLL
  - TBD

- Arpad:  Write parameter passing syntax proposal (BIRD draft)
          for *-AMS models in IBIS that is consistent with the
          parameter passing syntax of the AMI models
          - TBD

- TBD:    Propose a parameter passing syntax for the SPICE
          - [External ...] also?
          - TBD

- Arpad:  Review the documentation (annotation) in the macro libraries.
          - Deferred until a demand arises or we have nothing else to do

-------------
New Discussion:

Walter showed the AMI Improvements BIRD:
- Added an example to explain "what is a parameter"
  - It shows a Framis as defined in .ami and as passed to the DLL
- Arpad: There is a paren missing after "(Type Integer"
- Walter: Will there be Root/Branch/Parameter/File naming conventions?
  - It specifies some characters that are not allowed
  - Added the explicit allowed character set
  - Some of these characters are problematic:
    - Some are reserved for command lines, escapes, math, logic, vectors, etc.
    - Some simulators require first character to be alphabetic
- Mike: We had a rule about not using case as the only differentiator
- Walter: For file names forward slash is allowed to support paths
- Enhancements have been made to the description of Default 
- Changes made to example of tree structure
- Hopefully any debate will be held by email

Bob: I have registered a number of objections with Walter:
- Character set:
  - This would be OK if we were starting from scratch
- Arpad: A spec can not say things are "problematic"
- Walter: This recommendation came from Adge Hawes
- Bob: This points out an inconsistency in IBIS itself
- Walter: It is copied from IBIS

Bob: If vendors have shipped non-compliant files should the parser reject them?
- Walter: Vendors can register objections
  - We should wordsmith these to be perfectly clear
- Arpad: The question is about what vendors should do
- Walter: The parser should check the rules
- Bob: The word "must" is key
  - The rule is good
  - This is a parser issue
  - We should recommend that names begin with alpha and have certain characters
  - We will kill models if we make it mandatory
- Walter: If we recommend, the parser can warn or ignore
  - We agree
- Bob: The supporting material is not needed
  - It can be moved to the bottom of the BIRD
  - The parser can have a warning check
- Walter: If I move it now the change tracking will be confusing

Bob: It would be better to not use NA
  - We can make the value optional instead
- Walter: Let's look at Range
  - Without NA it would not be known what the next value represents
- Bob: This is a corruption of Range, which has a well established meaning
  - Now it requires a different data type
  - Why specify Range and leave one or both ends open?
- Walter: This is nitty gritty
- Bob: We will postpone this until next time
- Walter: We should handle this by email
- Bob: How we handle it is up to the committee
- Walter: We can do things in parallel by email
  - Unresolved items should come back to the committee

Walter: I have partitioned the BIRD into 7 separate files
- A new document gives an overview of AMI and the related documents
- It contains block diagrams with graphical elements
- Blue, red and green boxes show different sections of channel system
- It covers theory, DLL, .AMI file, parameter classification
- It is pasted without reformatting into another document
- Who would like to take ownership of these documents?

Ambrish: Will the IBIS Open Forum approve this?
- Arpad: We discussed it last time and there was no objection
- Bob: Who is "we"?
- Arpad: It was our group, not the Open Forum
  - We need 2 BIRDs
    - Making AMI independent
    - All the correctional changes
- Ambrish: We can see if the first BIRD passes
- Bob: It would be easier with 2 BIRDs
- Radek: Will we keep the [Algorithmic Model] keyword inside the IBIS file?
- Todd: The IBIS file has a collection of constraints that go with it
  - Also AMI is a completely different syntax
- Bob: There is a standalone AMI file checker
- Ambrish: Will we still use the IBIS bug process?
- Bob: Walter states that whatever works in 5.0 works in 5.1
  - We should maximize compatibility
- Todd: We should not obsolete 5.0
  - AMI is alien to most people reading IBIS
- Walter: We have the BIRD process
  - Touchstone 2 is working on their process
  - We will probably follow what they do
- Bob: We mainly have to reach consensus
  - The .AMI syntax is most important
- Walter: Does this have to go to Open Forum?
- Arpad: Yes, it has to follow the normal BIRD process
- Bob: There should be no issue about having a separate document
  - Walter sent a new section 6C which should be fine
- Todd: So if we agree here there should be no problem in Open Forum
- Bob: It could be brought in as a question to vote on
  - It doesn't have to be a BIRD

Walter: Should we post these documents?
- Arpad: It needs to be edited for style
- Walter: Agree
- Todd: I could help too
- Arpad: We should post these
- Ambrish: Should we give the Open Forum a heads up?
- Todd: Every interest party should already be here
- Arpad: It could be posted on the ATM reflector

AR: Walter send split-up AMI BIRD documents to ATM reflector

Walter: Should we discuss Gaussian now or next week?
- Arpad: We are over time and there have been several line drops
  - We can discuss by email

Next meeting: 23 Mar 2009 12:00pm PT

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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives