Re: [IBIS] FW: *-AMS language versions in IBIS

Arpad:

I support your view.  The presumption is that the interested groups
advancing the standardized languages are providing corrections and
important advances to serve the industry.  IBIS should be able to
make use of the advances when officially available.

Some new features may take time to adopt.  However, that is not a
valid reason for purposefully keeping IBIS fixed on a previous
version.  This creates the problem of when to advance the verision
to some new, but non-current level.  We cannot have any process
based on commerical concensus because industrial plans are
confidential and outside the scope of what IBIS can discuss.

Instead, we must provide the best feature set to industry as a target
(and reward) for the first company to adopt.  Others can follow if
it makes business sense.  This keeps us out of confidential product
development issues while automatically keeping IBIS up to date.

However, the burden of what features to use shifts to the model
developer.  The model developer must know what features exist in
the target tools of interest and use alternative (perhaps less
optimal) approaches in order for the models to work and be validated.
Otherwise the models would not be tested - a very dangerous practice.

Bob

Muranyi, Arpad wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>  
> I would like to generate discussion on VHDL-AMS and Verilog-AMS version
> numbers in the IBIS specification.  The IBIS 4.1 spec says, in part, the
> following:
>  
> | "VHDL-AMS" refers to "IEEE Standard VHDL Analog and Mixed-Signal
> | Extensions", approved March 18, 1999 by the IEEE-SA Standards Board
> and
> | designated IEEE Std. 1076.1-1999.
> |
> | "Verilog-AMS" refers to the Analog and Mixed-Signal Extensions to
> | Verilog-HDL as documented in the Verilog-AMS Language Reference,
> Version
> | 2.0.  
> 
> Please note that the *-AMS version numbers mentioned in the IBIS spec
> are
> fixed values.  Verilog-AMS is already past Version 2.2 of its LRM, and
> VHDL-AMS is due for a five-year renewal soon.
> 
> As written, every time new version of these languages comes out, the
> IBIS
> specification will have to be updated to change the *-AMS version
> numbers.
> With IBIS updates occurring very infrequently, new and useful features
> in
> the *-AMS specifications may not be available to the IBIS community for
> over a year (or more) after the new LRMs are approved.
> 
> In attempt to remedy this problem, I authored BIRD99 which can be found
> at:  http://www.vhdl.org/pub/ibis/birds/bird99.txt.  The BIRD makes the
> *-AMS
> language versions listed in the IBIS specification the *minimum*
> supported
> set, but permits support of more recent versions.
> 
>>From my perspective as a model-maker and user, there are times when I
> cannot
> solve certain modeling problems without some of the latest features in
> the
> *-AMS languages and tools.  This is not permitted in IBIS 4.1, as
> written.
> However, I understand there are other views on this situation, which
> became
> apparent in our (healthy) debate in the last IBIS Open Forum
> teleconference.
> I would like to continue and expand the discussion here to get a better
> overall picture on the problem so we can find the best solution for this
> problem.
> 
> Please express your opinions and needs, so we could make a wise decision
> for the IBIS specification.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Arpad
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-- 
Bob Ross
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