IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 31 August 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
  Kellee Crisafulli, Celsionix
  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
  Scott McMorrow, Teraspeed Consulting Group
  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:

- none

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Review of ARs:

- Arpad: Send re-updated definition clarification BIRD to Michael M
  - This is officially BIRD 114 now

- Walter and Todd: Discuss email items 5 & 6 with Ken

- 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:    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

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New Discussion:

Arpad: Walter's String BIRD was covered by the Definitions BIRD
- He has 3 other items to discuss today

Walter showed his Labels BIRD:
- Arpad: Have any changes been made?
- Walter: No
- Labels give meaning to cryptic values
- For example -1, 0, 1 might be labeled Slow, Typ, Fast
- Arpad: Should we requirements about the number and order?
- Walter added a requirement for Labels to match the List
- Ambrish: This should be allowed only for List
  - The example using corners is confusing
- Walter: It might be useful for other types
- Todd: It makes no sense for types with unknown length
  - It could be used if someone wants 7 corners
  - But that could cause confusion
- Walter added "X Slow" and "X Fast" to the example
- Ken: Could it be used for Table?
  - Those are used a lot
- Mike: Should Labels be ListLabels?
- Walter: Labels is already defined and parsed
- Ambrish: Should this say labels are not needed for corners?
- Walter: It should be OK as is

Walter showed his Value_Default BIRD:
- Five reserved parameters must have Default, not Value
- Bob: But not both
- Todd: Why allow Default at all here?
- Walter: That was a historical mistake that slipped through
- Bob: This should be Format Value
- Walter: Another BIRD deals with that
- Ken: Was there another BIRD about this?

Walter showed his Format Clarification BIRD:
- The Format keyword is redundant
  - The type code after it is sufficient
- The parser does not complain if it is absent
- Parsers still have to support it even if by ignoring it
- Todd: This is just bad computer science
- Walter: We should be ready to vote on this next week
- Arpad: Can we deprecate this?
- Ken: Why do we care about this if it has no impact?
- Walter: To make the language cleaner
- Arpad: We may need a version number system to handle deprecation
  - We also should deprecate Use_Init_Output
- Bob: We should not deprecate
- Walter: Deprecation means it's optional now and gone in the future

Walter showed his Flow Correction BIRD:
- This was sent recently by Arpad
- Changed to discuss LTI, non-LTI, and filters
- Red marks show Arpad's changes
- Walter: Arpad objected that we had not defined what the Rx filter was
- Walter: Clarifies that we "treat" models as though GetWave_Exists is False
- Arpad: The blue text is step 6 should be more consistent
  - Someone had asked how to know when to deconvolve
  - What if the Tx is not done by convolution
- Walter: It CAN be represented whether it was convolved or not
- Fangyi: Deconvolution is needed regardless of the Rx
  - You have to recover the Rx filter
  - You do not need to recover the Tx filter
- Arpad: The "performs filter optimization" condition is not correct
- Fangyi: The 3rd condition should be "Rx has no GetWave"
- Walter: We should be able to vote on this BIRD next week

Bob: Some editorial work will be needed
- Walter: Can we keep editorial discussions out of these meetings?
- Bob: It's not just about format

AR: Walter send BIRDs to Mike for posting

Next meeting: 7 September 2010 12:00pm PT

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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives