IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 27 March 2012

Members (asterisk for those attending):
Agilent:                    * Fangyi Rao
                            * Radek Biernacki
Altera:                     * David Banas
Ansys:                        Samuel Mertens
                              Dan Dvorscak
                              Curtis Clark
Arrow Electronics:            Ian Dodd
Cadence Design Systems:       Terry Jernberg
                            * Ambrish Varma
			    * Feras Al-Hawari
Celsionix:                    Kellee Crisafulli
Cisco Systems:                Ashwin Vasudevan
                              Syed Huq
Ericsson:                     Anders Ekholm
IBM:                        * Greg Edlund
Intel:                        Michael Mirmak
LSI Logic:                    Wenyi Jin
Maxim Integrated Products:    Mahbubul Bari
Mentor Graphics:              John Angulo
                              Zhen Mu
                            * Arpad Muranyi
                              Vladimir Dmitriev-Zdorov
Micron Technology:            Randy Wolff
NetLogic Microsystems:        Ryan Couts
Nokia-Siemens Networks:     * Eckhard Lenski
QLogic Corp.                * James Zhou
Sigrity:                      Brad Brim
                              Kumar Keshavan
                            * Ken Willis
SiSoft:                     * Walter Katz
                            * Todd Westerhoff
                              Doug Burns
			    * Mike LaBonte
Snowbush IP:                  Marcus Van Ierssel
ST Micro:                     Syed Sadeghi
Teraspeed Consulting Group:   Scott McMorrow
                            * Bob Ross
TI:                           Casey Morrison
                              Alfred Chong
Vitesse Semiconductor:        Eric Sweetman
Xilinx:                       Mustansir Fanaswalla

The meeting was lead by Arpad Muranyi

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Opens:

- None

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Call for patent disclosure:

- None

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Review of ARs:

- Bob send discussion of s-param boundary conditions calculation
  - Done

- Arpad to write a new revision of BIRD 117 and 118 to generalize references 
  to parameters in files (.ami or any)
  - in progress

- Ambrish update BIRD 145 for pad to pin mapping and other clarifications
  - Need to say what it will not solve
  - in progress

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New Discussion:

Arpad showed a draft update of BIRD 117.4:
- Arpad: The rewrite of "Statement of the Resolved Specification" was extensive
  - Examples from BIRD 116 are modified here
  - "TreeRootName" is the name actually used in the root of the AMI file
  - AMI content can be in this file or external
    - The search order is similar to that for package models
  - An error (".END" should be "[END]") will be fixed
  - Placing AMI content after [END] should help parsers.
- Walter: Does the [Algorithmic Model] root name have to match the AMI root name?
- Arpad: Yes
- Radek: Placing it before [END] would be syntactically more consistent
  - There could be confusion if defined in multiple places
- Arpad: There is a hierarchy
- Feras: If there is no AMI model it has to be in the IBIS file?
- Arpad: It can be in a .par file
- Feras: Could we have model specific parameter trees for multiple models?
- Walter: There can be multiple tree root names at the end
- Arpad: It's like [Define Package Model], which can appear multiple times
- Walter: AMI params can have hierarchical levels
  - There must be a way to refer to items at different levels
  - Taps are an example
  - Also we should be able to refer to either Model_Specific or Reserved
- Radek: How would a List item be selected?
- Arpad: The GUI will have to offer a choice
- Fangyi: Why do we need the param tree in the IBIS file?
  - The value can just be assigned as a literal
- Ambrish: It is more flexible because there can be choice by corner, etc.
- Radek: It is fine to have that flexibility
- Arpad: There might have to be different rules about which keywords are required
- Feras: This could be more flexible on that
- James: Why separate Parameters and Converter_Parameters?
- Arpad: The rules are a little different
  - In one case an assignment is required, the other not
- Walter: Converter_Parameters are not passed to the subckt
  - MyVlow and MyVHigh would have to be reserved
- James: It only has to look up in the file to find the value
- Walter: It is the subckt instance that will be looking for it, no IBIS file there
- James: What if I used Converter_Parameters for sp_file_name?
- Arpad: Converter_Parameters can only be numeric
- James: If a value is undefined how do you use it?
- Arpad: The user can set it with the GUI
- Walter: There is a problem that the root name is not the AMI file name
- Radek: You could point to the file which has multiple trees
- Arpad: The AMI files have to be in the same directory
- Walter: There is confusion that there is an AMI file for each DLL
- Fangyi: What if different files have the same variable?
- Arpad: The problem is where two files have the same root name
- Feras: We would want to reference the file name explicitly
- Walter: There could be a virtual file name keyword for embedded content
- Ambrish: It could be just the IBIS file name
- Bob: If embedded it should be surrounded by square bracket keywords
  - Is this equivalent to an AMI file?
- Arpad: We should not use embedded content for AMI models
- Feras: Giving the file name solves the problem
- Arpad: It would be better not to
- James: Can we use this to ask which s-params to use?
- Arpad: Dependency tables can do that
- Walter: This is resubmitted as BIRD 150
- Fangyi: The purpose is to allow multiple values for a parameter?
- Arpad: The purpose is to keep things in one file

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Next meeting: 03 Apr 2012 12:00pm PT

Next agenda:
1) Task list item discussions

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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives