IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 23 February 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, Cadence Design Systems
  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
  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
  Zhen Mu, Mentor Graphics

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Opens:

- None

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Call for patent disclosure:

- No one declared a patent.

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Review of ARs:

- Arpad: Write a clarification BIRD to discuss accuracy issues related to the various AMI clock_tick algorithms in an IBIS-AMI DLL
  - TBD

- Todd: Update the BIRD for IBIS S-parameter box based on feedback from discussion
  - No update

- 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

- 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

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New Discussion:

Arpad showed the AMI Improvements BIRD:
- Arpad: We should accept the changes and make the markup go away for readability.
- Bob: We need to review some technical issues
  - For example, arrays
  - Why do we need labels?

Walter lead a page by page BIRD review, accepting changes on the fly:
- A new paragraph describes param passing to DLL:
  - Each param has only one value when it reaches the DLL
  - The user can select a value, or it can be automatic
- Fangyi: We don't need to have NA values passed to the DLL
- Bob: If the flow is Output we could not even declare a value for Model_Specific
- Walter: OK

- Walter: NA means no constraint
  - It also means Not Applicable for In and InOut parameters

- Walter: Labels were initially used in Table
  - Now it is used for List
  - It is extremely useful
- Walter added line that number of labels must equal number of list items

- Walter: We could make Usage and Type optional for boolean params like GetWave_Exists
- John: That's OK
- Bob: The syntax checking gets complicated
- Todd: Usage and Type boolean should never be used
  - Boolean should be regarded as the default type
- Ambrish: For all parameters?
- Todd: For all boolean parameters
- Bob: There is mandated non-legacy support
  - It must be consistent with 5.0

Walter deleted "Float or" from Ignore_Bits, which must be Integer
On Page 23:
- Walter: Will propose changes to the definition of tree structure
- Bob: We should not have a link to Wikipedia

Walter removed Arpad's note about simulation times on page 26
- Walter: It can be an amendment to this BIRD

Walter: I would like to get this BIRD out soon
- Others can propose amendments after reading it
- The final BIRD will be integrated into IBIS 5.1
- Jitter is non-trivial and will have to be separate
- Arpad: Do we have a list of questions about the BIRD?
- Bob: I have questions about requiring Default
  - Backward compatibility is the question
- Walter: Any 5.0 file will be legal under this spec
- Bob: An exception is GetWave_Exists
  - 5.0 does not allow format value
  - We decided this to get the parser out the door
- Walter: Only for Tx_DCD
- Ambrish: There is an exception for Tx_DCD
- Walter: I will try to write some words to take care of this
- Todd: The value can be omitted but the Default is True
- Bob: We need to allow Default for legacy support
  - This can be constrained to 5 parameters

Walter explained the new keyword Ignore_Time:
- It is like Ignore_Bits but in units of time
- Fangyi: This would have to be mutually exclusive
- Walter: We could:
  - Take the longer time value
  - Prefer Ignore_Time
  - Make it an error to have both
- Ambrish: What is the advantage?
- Walter: It just an easier way to express it
  - Hard to express in bits when you have jitter, for example
  - Can be in UI
- Todd: Time is independent of bit rate
  - Typically this is for receiver adaptation time, which is in bits
  - Giving a choice can be easier for the user
- We decided not to propose Ignore_Time right now

AR: Walter send updated AMI Improvements BIRD to Mike for posting

Arpad: Again, do we have a list of technical issues?
- We need a more constructive approach than repeated group passes through the BIRD
- Mike: It would be best to have someone's punch list of items to discuss
- Bob: I will have questions regarding arrays and NA
- Arpad: We need to use email more for these discussions

Next meeting: 02 Mar 2009 12:00pm PT

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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives
