Subject: Re: [IBIS] EIA IBIS Open Forum Minutes (05/31/02)
From: Kim Helliwell (kimgh@apple.com)
Date: Wed Jun 05 2002 - 13:56:43 PDT
I feel compelled to add something to Al Davis's
comments on the open source proposal:
On Wednesday, June 5, 2002, at 01:01 PM, Al Davis wrote:
> If the parser is not open source, anyone making an open source tool
> must make a "rival parser". The existing parser licensing
> effectively prohibits any academic research projects from using it.
>
> The restriction imposed by the existing license is very far reaching.
> First, it means that no open source simulator can use it, at all.
> Second, there is a potential for many small IBIS related projects
> that could be done by individuals or small teams, perhaps as academic
> senior projects. Some examples might be viewers, validation tools,
> extraction tools, and others. All of these are prevented by the
> existing closed source license.
>
This is probably the crux of the issue. I assume that
we in the IBIS community would like to see a day when
chip vendors naturally provide correct quality IBIS
files for all of their parts, and we users don't have to
beg for and educate the vendors as to how to create
quality buffer models.
I've seen it deplored more than once in this list and
in the SI list that vendors tend to hand the job of
creating their IBIS files to junior engineers who have
no idea how these models are used, and therefore
they make ludicrous mistakes. They don't know
any better, and there is no one to teach them.
This state of affairs could change if the Golden Parser
were available to Universities and encouragement
were given to build senior projects on top of the
parser, as Al suggests. At least some of the junior
engineers coming from our Universities would have
had some exposure to IBIS and might therefore be
better prepared for taking over the task of creating
models.
It is highly probable, also, that the bulk of the
contributors of bug fixes and new functionality
would come from highly motivated University
students in CSEE departments.
In short, if we really want to see improvements in
the IBIS models we get from vendors, we in the
IBIS community ought to make IBIS more accessible
to the students who are the future chip designers.
And one really good way to do this is to get over
our parochial concerns about funding models and
GPL the Golden Parser, and MAKE SURE that
every EE and CSEE department in the world has
access to that code.
Kim Helliwell
Apple Computer
kimgh@apple.com
408 974 9936
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