BIG BIRD COMMENTS

To IBIS Committee and Eric:

First, you did an impressive job, Eric, in presenting and packaging Bird10.
Most of the considerations here already have some resolution within the
proposal, but they are still items for comment and possible refinement.

(1) The .pkg file is structured very much like the .ibs file. The header and
clarification sections are identical. One difference is that .ibs requires
an [End] at the end of the file, but .pkg does not. For parallelism [End]
could be required even though each [Define Package Model] section contains
an [End Model Data] statement. So the question is, for parallelism,
should [End] be required? This is more a format style question than one
of required functionality. I am happy with the proposal as is.

(2) Should the package model be required to reside in a separate file .pkg?
The structure presented from [Define Package Model] through [End Model Data]
appear to be a self contained, complete grouping which would fit very
well within the same .ibs file as the component or components referencing
it. The parser commands for .pkg would be the same for the .ibs file. Also,
some components may be supplied with special, one of a kind packages. The
search order could be to look first within the .ibs file and then to other
..pkg files. This may be an unnecessary complication beyond what is
needed, so I can accept the proposal as is.

(3) One concern I have is that the proposed .pkg formats allow PGA
alphanumeric nomenclature "A1 .. AA1 .. BB1 ..". The existing .ibs files
allow such nomenclature. Can [Row] numbers include alphanumeric arguments in
in addition to numerical arguments? The column ordering would have to follow
the same order as the rows. While not stated, this could be an additional
requirement for numerical entries as well. In the Sparce Matrix format
both the [Row] and Index entries could name actual PGA pins.

(4) "Banded Matrix" should be "Banded_Matrix". Similarly for "Full Matrix"
and "Sparce Matrix". Only keywords within square brackets "[" and "]"
allow spaces.

(5) Are the same set of units as in the .ibs file allowed in the .pkg file?
I assume so and that all of the relevant format conventions in .ibs apply
to .pkg.

Finally, Eric, you have presented documentation showing conclusively that
BIG BIRD really is larger than IBIS. That by itself deserves a 10!

Bob Ross,
Interconnectix, Inc.
Received on Tue Mar 22 23:07:21 1994