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IBIS INTERCONNECT TASK GROUP
http://www.ibis.org/interconnect_wip/
Mailing list: ibis-interconnect@freelists.org
Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archive/ibis-interconn/
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Attendees from May 15, 2019 Meeting (* means attended at least using audio)
ANSYS Curtis Clark
Cadence Design Systems Bradley Brim
Intel Corp. Michael Mirmak*
Keysight Technologies Radek Biernacki
Mentor, A Siemens Business Arpad Muranyi*
Micron Technology Justin Butterfield*, Randy Wolff*
SiSoft Walter Katz*, Mike LaBonte*
Teraspeed Labs Bob Ross*
Michael Mirmak convened the meeting. No patents were declared.
Justin Butterfield took minutes.
Review of Minutes:
- Michael called for review of the minutes from the May 8, 2019 meeting.
Mike LaBonte moved to approve the minutes. Bob Ross seconded. The minutes were
approved without objection.
Review of ARs:
- Bob to make the name changes to the EMD proposal.
- Bob reported this is done, but there are some questions he would like to
discuss.
Opens:
- Michael noted the Touchstone survey is slated to close at 9 PM Pacific time on
Friday, May 17th. Mike stated he did not note the time the survey will end in
his initial advertisements, but he has added the end date to reminders. Michael
asked if there is any means to let people know the survey is closed. Mike
replied he can simply close the survey. He noted we have 81 responses thus
far, and our best bump in responses has come from the SI List emails. Michael
commented that the goal is to get a good cross section of the industry. Mike
noted he has not heard from Eric Bogatin. Michael thought this would be a
good idea, but we do not have much time.
IBIS-ISS Parser Costs:
Mike stated Bob had reached out to the parser developer for feedback on an
IBIS-ISS parser. The tasks performed by the parser include: parsing the syntax,
forming memory structures, and syntax checks performed to apply limits. The
developer's first thought is to use an existing tool such as Berkley SPICE or
Ngspice. The issue with this would be related to the copyright terms. It is
also unclear how much benefit it would be to use this code as the starting
point. Michael thought the copyright terms are misleading, since they are using
the word "copyright" rather than "license". He thought that this would not be a
problem for us, but it would need to be reviewed.
Mike noted he did not get a dollar figure estimate, but based on the timeline
the developer gave of one to two months, he anticipates the price to be higher
than what he was initially expecting. Bob stated we do not have a quote, since
we did not thoroughly scope the project. Michael asked if we can simply point
to the IBIS-ISS specification. Michael would like to add scoping the IBIS-ISS
parser to the bin list, and we would need a price to move forward. Mike
commented that we have some time while the developer works on IBISCHK7, but we
need to decide a source code license price. Bob agreed and noted we need to
decide how to handle this and where the funds for an IBIS-ISS parser would come
from.
Walter Katz asked why do we need an IBIS-ISS parser. He suggest all the parser
should do is go line-by-line and check if the element is legal and is used in a
legal way. This would be more straightforward than checking the nodes. Randy
Wolff agreed this would be useful for model makers to know that an element is
valid for IBIS-ISS. Walter suggested to constrain the parser to check only the
element syntax. Bob noted this is part of creating a specification for the
IBIS-ISS parser. Arpad Muranyi noted there are some subtle differences between
HSPICE and IBIS-ISS. Michael asked if it would be necessary to have to have a
parser specification before we can issue a request for quote. Mike noted that
this work has typically been done in the Quality task group, but it would be
good to have additional participation for these discussions. Bob suggested to
set this aside for now. Michael stated that he would like to add the scoping
document to the bin list.
EMD Draft 3 Changes:
Bob noted he added hierarchy diagrams as a way to view the new keywords. He
changed "Interconnect Model" to "Electrical Module". He also renamed
[Reference Designator Map] to [EMD Designator Map]. Bob set [Module] as the top
level keyword and asked if we will support multiple Modules. EMD files can
contain [Electrical Module Set]s (EMS) inside or as separate files. He chose to
put the [EMD Reference Map] under the Set, while [Pin List] is under [Module].
Bob noted we need to look at the interfaces, as the external interface and
internal interfaces are specified different. The EMD and IBIS might conflict in
terms of naming of pins. Bob did not get into the issue of bus_label and if we
want to use this to short the pins at the interface. He stated the changes have
been made, but there could be mistakes. Mike stated he agrees with the approach
of renaming the keywords. Walter agreed with changing the keyword names and
noted he used the EBD syntax as the starting point. The issue is if we want to
allow multiple Modules in one EMD file, he would like to simplify things and
have one Module per EMD file. The other issue is that every signal has a type,
and he suggested that signal_type can be a useful field.
Michael asked if Walter would like to make the changes. Walter stated, no, and
suggested the group should edit the document.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting will be May 22.
Walter moved to adjourn. Bob seconded. The meeting adjourned without
objection.
EMD Comments to be Resolved:
1. Change top level keywords to distinguish between EMD and Interconnect Models
2. Add Touchstone to the introduction
3. Clarify the meaning of signal_type
4. File format structure
IBIS-ISS Parser:
- IBIS-ISS Parser scope document