IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 28 September 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:

Bob raised a question about the Taps parameter:
  - It must be an integer, right?
- Walter: Correct

Bob raised a question about parameter branch levels:
  - Can reserved parameters have lower branch parameters?
  - Assume it would not be allowed
- Walter: Currently none have lower levels
  - In the future there may be nested reserved parameters
  - We should not rule that out now
- Bob: Could lower branches be attached to existing parameters?
- Walter: No it would have to be a new parameter

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Call for patent disclosure:

- none

-------------
Review of ARs:

- Arpad: Continue discussion of Flow BIRD by email
  - Done

- 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

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

Arpad discussed changes made for deprecation of Use_Init_Output:
- We need to remove every reference to Use_Init_Output
- Bob: I can accept this as-is
  - Would like to know if model makers use it
- Arpad: Everyone should be using it because it is in the spec
- Walter: We use it but will stop in the next release
- Bob: If we have version data we might warn that it is being ignored
  - Everyone needs to know about this change
- Ambrish: We use Use_Init_Output but will also stop in the next release
- Bob: A note should be in the BIRD saying it undoes BIRD 107
- Ambrish: BIRD 107 added more than that
- Arpad: BIRD 107 appeared before 5.0
- Todd: Bob suggests a historical reference, not technical
- Mike: It backs out a feature of BIRD 107, not the whole BIRD
- No comment about BIRD 107 will be added

Todd showed the latest Flow BIRD (2010 09 27):
- Fangyi: In Step 6b the outputs of steps 3 and 5 both include the channel
- Arpad: Step 3 talks about avoiding double counting
  - One method is to not use Tx GetWave
- Fangyi: The input to Rx is channel + Tx EQ?
- Arpad: So going to Step 5a is the problem
- Ambrish: But in that case we would go to Step 5b
- Arpad: The wording is not clear
- Fangyi: This problem did not exist in a previous version
- Walter: This should be worked out outside of this meeting
- Bob: The editorial work should be done too

Walter showed the Labels BIRD:
- This will make Lists more useful
- Arpad: We could have the same rules for Lists and Tables
  - It should be more consistent
- Walter: There is confusion about where to use double quotes
  - Vendors have had trouble with this
- Bob: Labels would be used differently within Lists and Tables
  - Also Labels becomes a new reserved word
- Walter: We could use a different word
- Arpad: It would be better to have a common syntax
  - Can Labels be scoped within Lists?
- Walter: That violates our syntax rules
- Bob: Lists could be like Table but with no parens around the data.
- Mike: That is messy
- Walter: We should find out how people are using Tables
- Ambrish: We use Tables as DLL inputs
- Ken: We use that too
- Walter: Can we get some examples?
  - If Table is used as an input it needs more documentation
  - For example are strings allowed? Do they require quotes?
- Walter: A number of IC vendors want this BIRD
  - Labels could be List_Labels
- Bob: It is a burden on IBIS to document two very similar features
  - It becomes elevated to the same status as a reserved word

Walter: Where should I discuss a new idea about corners in IBIS?
- Arpad: Open forum would be best

Next meeting: 05 October 2010 12:00pm PT

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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives