IBIS Macromodel Task Group

Meeting date: 02 November 2021

Members (asterisk for those attending):
Achronix Semiconductor:       Hansel Dsilva
Amazon:                       John Yan
ANSYS:                      * Curtis Clark
                            * Wei-hsing Huang
Cadence Design Systems:       Ambrish Varma
                              Ken Willis
                              Jared James
Google:                       Zhiping Yang
Intel:                        Michael Mirmak
                              Kinger Cai
                              Alaeddin Aydiner
Keysight Technologies:        Fangyi Rao
                            * Majid Ahadi Dolatsara
                              Ming Yan
                              Radek Biernacki
                            * Rui Yang
                              Todd Bermensolo
Luminous Computing            David Banas
Marvell                       Steve Parker
Mathworks (SiSoft):           Walter Katz
                              Mike LaBonte
Micron Technology:          * Randy Wolff
                            * Justin Butterfield
Missouri S&T                  Chulsoon Hwang
Siemens EDA (Mentor):       * Arpad Muranyi
Teraspeed Labs:             * Bob Ross
Zuken USA:                    Lance Wang

The meeting was led by Arpad Muranyi.  Curtis Clark took the minutes.

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Opens:

- None.

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Review of ARs:

- Randy to send his PSIJ data presentation to ATM.
  - Done.

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Call for patent disclosure:

- None.

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Review of Meeting Minutes:

Arpad asked for any comments or corrections to the minutes of the October 26th
meeting.  Randy moved to approve the minutes.  Bob seconded the motion.
There were no objections.

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New Discussion:

Supporting PI modeling/simulation in IBIS:
Randy reported that he had sent a model to Chulsoon so that he and his students
could work with it.  Randy said we could eventually compare the results of their
PSIJ IBIS model with his transistor-level results.

"alphanumeric" pin name requirements:
Arpad reported that he was developing a script to generate EMD models, and the
pre-release ibischk7.1.0 parser he was using to check them was generating errors
for [EMD Pin List] pins with '_' in their names.  Arpad noted that the
specification states "alphanumeric" for pin names in [EMD Pin List] and other
EMD keywords.  He said the specification doesn't really define the term, but the
parser is interpreting it strictly as (0-9, a-z, A-Z).

He asked if the IBIS [Pin] keyword was also restricted to "alphanumeric" pin
names.  After a brief review of the specification, Randy said that we never
explicitly state "alphanumeric" in the [Pin] definition section.  Bob said it
may have been an oversight that we didn't restrict the original [Pin] names
to alphanumeric characters (strict definition as above), but we had stated
that they should be data book pin names, and data book pin names never used
other characters.  Bob asked if anyone had a counter example, but he said the
alphanumeric assumption did not represent a practical limitation on any real
device.

Randy asked if a strict alphanumeric assumption on [Pin] might break any
existing models.  Arpad asked if this would be considered a new restriction?
Bob took an AR to see whether current or past ibischk parsers rejected [Pin]
names with other characters such as '_'.
 Note: subsequent checks by Bob confirmed that current and past parsers will
 accept many other characters in [Pin] names (e.g., '_', '#', etc.)., which is
 consistent with the fact that the specification did not state "alphanumeric"
 for the original [Pin] keyword.
 
Arpad said the EMD pins in his example EMD models come from abstract pin names
from the extraction process, not necessarily the physical pin names.  He said
he didn't mind the alphanumeric restriction, but he was wondering if it might
be too strict.

The Editorial task group will take up this question in their next meeting.

- Curtis: Motion to adjourn.
- Bob: Second.
- Arpad: Thank you all for joining.

AR:  Bob to investigate whether non-alphanumeric characters are accepted in
     [Pin] names by current and past ibischk parsers.

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Next meeting: 09 November 2021 12:00pm PT
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IBIS Interconnect SPICE Wish List:

1) Simulator directives
