Subject: Minutes from IBIS Forum User's Meeting 12/4/97

From: Kathy Breda <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 16:25:59 -0500

***Minutes of the IBIS Users Group meeting
   held at Cadence Design on Thursday, December 4, 1997***

First, thanks to all the participants and to the Cadence staff for
hosting the meeting and providing refreshments.

Discussion Topic 1:
------------------

The meeting began with Greg Edlund and Bob Haller, both of Digital,
presenting their thoughts on IBIS model Accuracy.  They discussed the 
need for the market to really drive the requirement for model
accuracy and that users need to consider making accuracy a 
pre-requisite for device purchase.  Also discussed was how IBIS model
accuracy could be measured, such as passing a Golder Parser,
measurement against lab verification metric, etc.  There was
a good amount of discussion regarding what the lab verification
metric should be.  One of the comments made was that different
circumstances warrant different grading of the models and that
the conditions of the grading must be clearly communicated.

Greg suggested three levels of accuracy -
1)  Corner silicon vs. IBIS corner simulation, 2) Typical silicon
vs. typical IBIS; SPICE corners vs. IBIS corners, and 
3) Typical silicon vs. typical IBIS; best guess corners.

Although no conclusion was reached there was discussion regarding
what type of supporting documentation should be supplied with the models.  
Lastly, test procedures were discussed such as IV curves, capacitance 
measurements and waveforms for representative test loads.

If you would like copies of Greg's slides, please send Kathy Breda 
(just reply to this note) your postal address and a copy will be mailed
to you.

Discussion Topic 2:
-------------------

The meeting than moved on to the creation of smaller working
groups. To keep momentum and progress, there is a need to create 
smaller working groups that will meet between meetings and report
back on their discussions.  We also want to make sure we coordinate
with the Open IBIS forum.  Ed Sayre of NESA will be the main interface
for the IBIS User Group meeting here on the East Coast.

Two sub-committees were formed:

1)  IBIS model validation/accuracy - how to construct a standard 
    for valid models useful in system applications, how they are simulated
    under different loading and termination conditions, etc.
        headed by Greg Edlund, DEC. ([email-masked])

2)  Software aspects of IBIS as it affects the user community -
     IBIS to SPICE, SPICE to IBIS, syntax and documentation, materials
     for education & Standardization, etc.
         headed by Paul Galloway, Cadence Design  ([email-masked])  

January Meeting:
---------------

Next meeting is planned for Thursday, January 15, 1998
at 3:00 P.M.  Tentatively scheduled to be held at 
Stratus Computer, Marlboro, MA.  A formal agenda
will be published after the holidays, however, the
general plan is to have each of the sub-committees provide
a report on their status and also have a guest speaker.

Best Regards and Happy, Safe Holidays to you all,

Ed Sayre & Kathy Breda

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