[ibis-macro] Re: Questions on AMI_parameters

  • From: "Ambrish Varma" <ambrishv@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 09:35:04 -0400

That's right Todd,
That's why I said 'format wise' that's the only correct way to pass the
parameters back to the model. 
The values themselves have to be in the range provided by the model
maker.

-Ambrish.

-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Westerhoff [mailto:twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 9:06 AM
To: Ambrish Varma
Cc: Arpad_Muranyi@xxxxxxxxxx; IBIS-ATM
Subject: Re: [ibis-macro] Re: Questions on AMI_parameters

Ambrish,

A minor point, but the string

(txtaps (-2 0.1) (-1 0.2) (0 1) (1 0.2) (2 0.1))

defines the string that would be passed to the model using the default 
conditions described in the .ami file.  As Kumar points out, one of the 
purposes of the .ami file is to define which values are legal.  Thus, 
the string

(txtaps (-2 0.2) (-1 -0.4) (0 2) (1 -0.4) (2 0.2))

is just as legal, given the example .ami code provided:

    (txtaps
      (-2 (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.1 -0.1 0.2)(Default
0.1)
          (Description "Second Precursor Tap"))
      (-1 (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.2 -0.4 0.4)(Default
0.2)
          (Description "First Precursor Tap"))
      (0  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 1 -1 2)(Default 1)
          (Description "Main Tap"))
      (1  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.2 -0.4 0.4)(Default2
0.2)
          (Description "First Post cursor Tap"))
      (2  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.1 -0.1 0.2)(Default
0.1)
          (Description "Second Post cursor Tap"))
    )                                  | End txtaps

The method by which the EDA platform combines the information in the 
.ami file and user input to derive the text string delivered to the 
model is not defined by the spec ... and in fact, doesn't matter.  The 
only requirement is that the final string delivered to the model is in 
the syntax you've indicated, and contains legal parameters and values as

defined in the .ami file.

Todd.


Todd Westerhoff
VP, Software Products
SiSoft
6 Clock Tower Place, Suite 250
Maynard, MA 01754
(978) 461-0449 x24
twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx
www.sisoft.com



Ambrish Varma wrote:
> Hi Arpad,
> The parameter file (.ami) is supposed to be provided by the dll
(model)
> writer. As such, the parameters are going to be in a format that the
> model would accept. In the example that is on page 150, 
> (txtaps (-2 0.1) (-1 0.2) (0 1) (1 0.2) (2 0.1))
> would be the correct (and only) choice (format wise) to give back to
the
> model.
>
> As far as the values that are going to be passed back to the model,
the
> EDA tool, with the help of the model user, will have to decide what
> values (within the range provided by the model writer) will be passed
> back to the model. The defaults can be used as a starting point as
those
> values are provided by the model writer and therefore are known to
work.
>
> Thanks,
> Ambrish.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ibis-macro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Muranyi, Arpad
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 8:30 PM
> To: IBIS-ATM
> Subject: [ibis-macro] Questions on AMI_parameters
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I would like to continue the discussion we started in last Tuesday's
> ATM meeting related to the subject of the AMI_parameter string
argument
> that is passed into the DLL.
>
> I took a little time to re-read the AMI portions of the IBIS v5.0
> specification and I am still not getting the picture.  On pg. 143 of
> the PDF formatted version of the specification I see the following:
>
> | The Parameter_File entry provides the name of the parameter
> | file with an extension of .ami.  This must be an external
> | file and should reside in the same directory as the .ibs file
> | and the shared object library file.  It will consist of
> | reserved and model specific (user defined) parameters for use
> | by the EDA tool and for passing parameter values to the model.
>
> Later on, on pg. 186 I see the following:
>
> | 3.1.2.6 AMI_parameters (_in and _out)
> | =====================================
> |
> | Memory for AMI_parameters_in is allocated and de-allocated by the
EDA
> | platform.  The memory pointed to by AMI_parameters_out is allocated
> and
> | de-allocated by the model.  This is a pointer to a string.  All the
> input
> | from the IBIS AMI parameter file are passed using a string that been
> | formatted as a parameter tree.
>
> These two sections lead me to believe that the ***entire content***
> of the .ami file was passed into the DLL through the parameter string
> and the DLL was responsible to parse and extract the necessary
> information
> from that string.
>
> Walter's comments in our last ATM meeting indicated that this was not
> the case, and that the DLL was supposed to get a subset of the .ami
> file's content in the parameter string.  Further down on pg. 143 I
> see some hints towards this in the examples and in the verbal and BNF
> syntax rules for this string, but I still don't see hard and fast
> rules on how the content of the .ami file gets reduced into something
> that can be passed into the DLL.
>
> If there are no rules on that, the EDA tool may formulate this subset
> one way, while the DLL's author may formulate the expected subset in a
> different way.  Without such rules the DLL interface essentially
becomes
> undefined, and each DLL will have to be dealt with in a unique or
custom
> way.  I thought that the purpose of the AMI specification was to
prevent
> exactly this situation.  Let me illustrate this with one of the
examples
> from the specification.
>
> There is an example on pg. 150 for how the Tx taps can be written up
> in an .ami file:
>
>     (txtaps
>       (-2 (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.1 -0.1 0.2)(Default
> 0.1)
>           (Description "Second Precursor Tap"))
>       (-1 (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.2 -0.4 0.4)(Default
> 0.2)
>           (Description "First Precursor Tap"))
>       (0  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 1 -1 2)(Default 1)
>           (Description "Main Tap"))
>       (1  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.2 -0.4 0.4)(Default2
> 0.2)
>           (Description "First Post cursor Tap"))
>       (2  (Usage Inout)(Type Tap) (Format Range 0.1 -0.1 0.2)(Default
> 0.1)
>           (Description "Second Post cursor Tap"))
>     )                                  | End txtaps
>
> I agree that this cannot be passed into the DLL as it is, because in
> this syntax there is nothing that tells the DLL what actual values
> it should use for a given simulation (unless we make use of the
> default values for that purpose, which is a little awkward).  But
> how is this format supposed to be translated for the DLL's parameter
> string?  I can see several ways:
>
> (txtaps (-2 0.1) (-1 0.2) (0 1) (1 0.2) (2 0.1))
>
> or
>
> (txtaps 0.1 0.2 1 0.2 0.1)
>
> or
>
> (txtaps_2 0.1)
> (txtaps_1 0.2)
> (txtaps0  1)
> (txtaps1  0.2)
> (txtaps2  0.1)
>
> etc...
>
> (We should have a competition on how many different ways this
> could be done :-) ).  Please correct me if I am wrong on any of
> this, I am willing to learn, but currently this is the way I
> understand what we have in the specification.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Arpad
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