IBIS is a method for integrated circuit

Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

 vendors to provide information about the input/output buffers of their product to their prospective customers without revealing the intellectual property of their implementation and without requiring proprietary encryption keys. The model is generated in text format and consists of a number of tables that captures current vs. voltage (IV) and voltage vs. time (Vt) characteristics of the buffer, as well as the values of certain parasitic components. In other words, it is a template (standard, data exchange format, etc.) for exchanging modeling information among semiconductor

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

 device suppliers, simulation

Simulation

Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....

 software suppliers, and end users.

IBIS models are generally used in lieu of SPICE

SPICE

SPICE is a general-purpose, open source analog electronic circuit simulator.It is a powerful program that is used in integrated circuit and board-level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior.- Introduction :Unlike board-level designs composed of discrete...

 models, to perform various board

Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...

 level signal integrity

Signal integrity

Signal integrity or SI is a set of measures of the quality of an electrical signal. In digital electronics, a stream of binary values is represented by a voltage waveform. However, digital signals are fundamentally analog in nature, and all signals are subject to effects such as noise,...

 (SI) simulations and timing analyses. IBIS models could be used to verify signal integrity requirements, especially for high speed products.

History

Intel initiated IBIS in the early 1990s. Intel needed to have all of its divisions to present a common standardized model format to its external customers. This prompted Intel to solicit EDA vendors to participate in the development of a common model format. The first IBIS model, version 1.0, was aimed at describing CMOS

CMOS

Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...

 circuits and TTL

Transistor-transistor logic

Transistor–transistor logic is a class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors and resistors. It is called transistor–transistor logic because both the logic gating function and the amplifying function are performed by transistors .TTL is notable for being a widespread...

 I/O buffers.

As IBIS evolved with the participation of more companies and industry members, an IBIS Open Forum was created to promote the application of IBIS as a simulation tool format and to make sure that a standard exists. Many semiconductor vendors supply IBIS models and many EDA

Electronic design automation

Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...

 vendors sell IBIS-compliant software tools. In 1995 the IBIS Open Forum teamed with the American National Standards Institute

American National Standards Institute

The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...

/Electronic Industries Alliance

Electronic Industries Alliance

The Electronic Industries Alliance was a standards and trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States. They developed standards to ensure the equipment of different manufacturers was compatible and interchangeable...

 (ANSI/EIA). IBIS version 2.1 was the first version released by the new alliance. It added the ability to simulate ECL

Emitter coupled logic

In electronics, emitter-coupled logic , is a logic family that achieves high speed by using an overdriven BJT differential amplifier with single-ended input, whose emitter current is limited to avoid the slow saturation region of transistor operation....

 and PECL buffers as well as differential lines

Differential signaling

Differential signaling is a method of transmitting information electrically by means of two complementary signals sent on two separate wires. The technique can be used for both analog signaling, as in some audio systems, and digital signaling, as in RS-422, RS-485, Ethernet , PCI Express and USB...

. IBIS 3.2 allows for a package model description along with an electrical board description. IBIS Version 5.0 was ratified by the IBIS Open Forum on August 29, 2008. Compared to the previous version (IBIS 4.2, ANSI/EIA-656-B), it adds a new flow based not on SPICE transient but on a channel simulator (called algorithmic model application program interface or AMI flow), power integrity, and EMC checking features. For power integrity, it uses Touchstone 2.0 S-parameter files with per-port reference impedance specification.

Today the IBIS Open Forum is an official subcommittee of TechAmerica

TechAmerica

TechAmerica is a US-based technology trade association. It was formed from the merger of AeA , the Cyber Security Industry Alliance , the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association , and the Information Technology Association of America in 2009...

.

Evolution

IBIS is an evolving standard with many proposed changes submitted to IBIS Open Forum for consideration. Proposed changes are called BIRDs (Buffer Issue Resolution Documents), a play on the word ibis

Ibis

The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae....

meaning a type of bird.