Library harmonization meeting Jan 19 2004 from 10AM to 12 noon at NEC, Santa Clara

Attendees
---------
John Williams, Markanix
Maddu Karutanate, V-cube
Hemant Joshi, Artisan
Wolfgang Roethig, NEC
Dave Allen, Sequence (phone)
Matt Liberty, Cadence (phone)
Robert Jones, Magma (phone)
Maulik Dave, self (phone)

Next meeting
------------
Feb 23 10AM-12noon, hosted by Artisan

Discussion
----------
The discussion evolved around the review of the following documents:

Updated DoD:          http://www.eda.org/alf/homepage/lib2alf.workdoc.2004_01_19.pdf
Updated Timing doc:   http://www.eda.org/alf/homepage/lib2alf.timing.2004_01_19.pdf

Moving forward, we want to cover all high-priority topics
in a 1st pass and then revisit them in a 2nd pass.
Hopefully we can wrap up the 1st pass of the timing topic
by next meeting.
Next items for 1st pass:
- power
- basic structure of library
- calculation methods

Question: Are calculation methods orthogonal to modeling domain?
Answer: yes

Question: How to describe timing arcs with buses involved?
Answer: see new action items

Question: How will the spec be validated?
Answer: Phase 1 of this project focusses on spec development only.
Spec validation can be proposed as phase 2, and it needs to be
approved and funded by the Accellera board.
Proposed validation items:
- Run STA tool with bilingual support, compare liberty and ALF results
- Run PrimeTime, compare with results from bilingual tool
Required work:
- creation of liberty and ALF library according to spec
- creation of test case
Other prerequisite:
- Vendor needs to give evaluation license to Accellera
  
Question: What is the semantic meaning of slew_derate_from_library
Answer: It provides a global scaling factor for all slew numbers
in library. Default is 1, i.e. no derating.
Purpose is to de-normalize slew data to match the measurement thresholds.

Question: Where will mapping rules for names with special characters be described?
Answer: In the document for "basic structure of library"

Question: How do the SDF constructs PATHPULSE, PATHPULSEPERCENT relate to liberty?
Answer: Possibly applicable in the domain of noise propagation.

Question: How do the SDF constructs ABSOLUTE, INCREMENT relate to liberty?
Answer: The INCREMENT construct describes a delta-delay,e.g. due to xtalk,
that has to be added to the delay without xtalk.
This concept is possibly not applicable in liberty.

Action item status
------------------
Write a proposal for ontology, suitable as a chapter in DoD
Owner: Alex Zamfirescu
WIP

Write short proposal for generic libraries
Owner: Alex Zamfirescu
OPEN

Make list of liberty items for which ALF representation is unknown
Owner: Fereshteh
WIP - main areas: power, flow-specific representation

Write short elaboration on requirements noise items (see DoD section 2.4)
Owner: Matt Liberty
WIP - Cadence discussions ongoing

Write paragraph about rules for libray data usage model by application
for possible inclusion in scope
Owner: Alex
OPEN

Resolve possible incompatibility between timing type and actual timing data
encountered in Artisan library
Owner: Greg, Andrea
DONE - Explanation: Arc exists for release of the preset and clear condition

Investigate *_capacitance semantics
Owner: Kevin Kranen
OPEN

Investigate relevance for intrinsic_*
Owner: Kevin Kranen
OPEN

Give feedback on conditional timing doc and examples
Owner: Greg Hackney
OPEN

Update DoD per discussion on Dec 19
Owner: Wolfgang
DONE

Update timing doc per discussion on Dec 19
Owner: Wolfgang
DONE

Prepare logistics for meeting on Jan 19
Owner: Wolfgang
DONE

Show a timing model involving a bus in liberty
Owner: Hemant
NEW

Show a timing model involving a bus in ALF
Owner: Wolfgang
NEW

Find out whether timing_sense is applicable to setup, hold
Owner: Hemant
NEW

Experiment w library compiler how to describe constraints
between async. preset and clear
Owner: Hemant
NEW

Find timing keyword for skew constraint, since intrinsic_* is obsolete
Owner: Wolfgang
NEW

Question to Synopsys: Are there plans to support pulsewidth, period
as table or polynom instead of scalar attribute in the future?
Owner: Kevin
NEW

Put timing diagrams into section 1.1
Owner: Wolfgang
NEW

Put slew_derate_from_library into section 1.2
Owner: Wolfgang
NEW