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 =================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- IBIS Macro website : http://www.eda.org/pub/ibis/macromodel_wip/ IBIS Macro reflector: //www.freelists.org/list/ibis-macro To unsubscribe send an email: To: ibis-macro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: unsubscribe --------------------------------------------------------------------- IBIS Macro website : http://www.eda.org/pub/ibis/macromodel_wip/ IBIS Macro reflector: //www.freelists.org/list/ibis-macro To unsubscribe send an email: To: ibis-macro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: unsubscribe