A channel analysis trilogy

Preface:

We SPISim recently developed and released free web apps for various channel analysis tasks [Click HERE for overview]. While their product page each gives good descriptions and demo about what each tool can do individually, we think it will also be beneficial to put them all together in one flow so that user may have better picture about our ideas behind these developments. Thus this post is written for dual purposes: First we would like to explain how a channel analysis is usually performed. Secondly we want to show how one can perform such process using apps even directly from the web browser. Just for comparison, creating AMI models and license for this type of simulator usually costs tens of thousands of dollars up front. Now it can be done for free!

The big picture:

[Fig. 1, A SERDES system]

Let’s use a SERDES system, shown in Fig. 1 above, as an example. For other interface’s such as DDR, please see our previous blog post for considerations about similar application.

A SERDES system uses a point-to-point topology. In Fig. 1, the middle block enclosed in blue represents the channel. It mainly contains passive interconnect such as package, transmission line, vias, connectors or even cable. However, the channel may also include active components such as Tx and Rx devices. These active components are usually represented by IBIS or spice models. Alternatively, we can pull these active components out from the channel and “merge” them into the EQ as “analog front end” stages. In that case, the channel become pure passive. One of the reasons why one may want to do it this way may be either that the IBIS models are not be ready, or there are no simulators available to have them included as part of the simulation. This is usually the case when a free spice simulator is used as none of them that I am aware of supports IBIS out of the box. In general, unless analog front end AMI models and a pure passive channel, represented as a S-parameter, are used together for the analysis, the active devices do need to be part of the channel characterization in order to obtain accurate time domain response.

The next step is to obtain or generate AMI models for each Tx and Rx EQ circuits. Interested reader may refer to several posts we have written about possible software architecture and methodologies.

Regarding the channel analysis process, a simulator will first convert the characterized channel in s-param, or step response into impulse response first, then depending on the simulation mode being specified, this response or convoluted bit sequence will be fed into Tx and Rx respectively to obtain the overall response. For LTI system, a permutation process will be performed for all possible bit combinations to calculate the PDF of each sampling point statistically, then integrate to obtain the CDF and thus create a bath tub plot. For  a NLTV system, bit-by-bit waveform is accumulated and overlapped to plot the eye and BER may be extrapolated from there. While not mentioned here and also not yet implemented, various jitter and noise components are also important when creating the stimulus or calculating final results.

Following the analysis procedure detailed on Section 10.2 of IBIS spec, to summarize them briefly, a channel analysis includes three tasks: channel characterization, EQ model creation and putting them all together for channel simulation.

Task 1. Channel Characterization:

The first step of channel analysis is to characterize the channel, the blue block of Fig. 1, in order to obtain is time domain response. Even with active Tx/Rx front end being involved, the assumption here is that the characterized response will be linear time invariant (LTI). With a LTI input, a channel simulator can either perform statistical analysis if other EQ components are also LTI, or it can have the impulse convolved with PRBS bit sequence to generate full time domain waveform, finally procees to process with NLTV EQ components to get the final time domain waveform for further eye analysis.

If the passive channel is from post-layout, then user will need to use other 3D extraction tool to obtain the interconnect’s s-parameter. Devil’s details here will then include making sure the S-parameter is in good qualities such as being passive, causal, symmetric and asympotic etc. Also depending on the simulator, converting the single ended s-parameter to mixed-mode/differential one may also be needed. On the other hand, for pre-layout case, user will then first obtain or generate each component’s simulation model. Assuming what user have here are Tx and Rx IBIS model, transmission line and other R/L/C based behavioral models for package, via and connectors, then first one can use our [SPISim_IBIS web app] to convert those IBIS model into free simulator compatible spice subcircuits:

Then head over to LTSpice, offered by Analog device, to download and install the free simulator.

Either create schematic or a text netlist of the channel them perform a transient simulation to get its step response. The output will be a raw file in compressed format which can be viewed either in place in LTSpice or use SPISim’s free SPILite:


Task 2. Tx/Rx EQ Modeling:

If no EQ circuit is involved, then user can simply tinker the circuit/simulation settings completed in task 1 to perform conventional time domain based SI analysis. The reason stat-eye like channel analysis comes to play is because EQ circuits (represented in green block for Tx EQ and orange block for Rx EQ in Fig. 1) are involved to open the eyes and many more bits need to be “simulated” to obtain/extrapolate low BER, thus can’t be done easily using nodal based spice simulator as it will simply take too much time. EQ circuits can come in different models such as behavioral, spice or AMI, with AMI being the common denominator supported by almost all channel analysis tools from different vendors. Thus in the second task, we need to generate IBIS-AMI models for Tx and Rx EQ.

IBIS-AMI modeling usually involves C/C++ coding or compilation into .dll/.so if starting from scratch. However, user may use [SPISim_AMI web app] to generate AMI models instantly without going through those steps:

Test driving the model and view its response in place to verify the model’s parameters meet the performance needs:

Then click “Generate” button and the AMI model will be generated instantly. If cross platform models are desired, use [SPILite] instead and all Windows 64, Windows 32 and Linux 64 models will be generated in one shot.

At the beginning of this section, we mentioned that the EQ model can also be in the form of spice circuit, whether encrypted or not. In that case, its detailed behaviors will not be able to be described exactly by template based  or pre-defined models. However, a spice wrapper AMI model supported by SPILite can still be used, it will make this spice model “AMI compatible” and can be used in other channel simulators. User’s licensed/installed simulator will be called during the channel simulator.


Task 3. Channel analysis:

With both Tx/Rx EQ models plus channel response being ready, we can then perform the StatEye based channel analysis using [SPISim_Link web app]:

Detailed usage about this tool is demonstrated in a video on its product page. Basically, user can specify the generated AMI models in the “Tx EQ” and “Rx EQ” tab respectively, then do the same for the step response waveform to the “channel tab”. Both “statistical” mode and “Bit-by-bit” modes are supported here, yet if NLTV EQ such as DFE is used in part of the receiver, then “statistical” model can not be performed. With these set-up ready, a “Simulate” click will show the results in place within seconds:

The bath tub curve representing the CDF is also ready for inspection/eye measurement:

Alternatively, task 1 and 2 are also directly supported in the SPISim_LINK function alone so user may choose to experiment with different settings and see their response first before generating corresponding AMI model. For example, a simple change of post-tap value in Tx can be done in the UI:

Then the re-simulation will quickly show its effect in resulting eye:

For a system developer, he/she may obtain corresponding AMI models from their IC vendors and follow the same process to give these model a try. For an IC vendor, the AMI model generated here will also be compatible with other vendor’s tool and you may provide these models to your system clients before committing to perpetual version of the model.

Here you have it…. an economic yet efficient channel analysis which can be done directly through the web has been enabled for your design needs without any cost!

IBIS/AMI: Equalization in coming DDR standard

Preface:

At the DesignCon IBIS summit this year, the second half of the meeting focused on the trend and possible approaches for equalization modeling for DDR interface. For the past several years, IBIS-AMI modeling and stat-eye like link analysis have been applied widely and successfully on the SERDES interfaces. DDR, on the other hand, didn’t consider EQ much until recent DDR4 3200 or faster or upcoming DDR5/DDR6 standard. Whether AMI like model and SERDES like flow can be applicable to DDR are still topics of discussion, as the AMI spec itself still doesn’t support DDR properly yet. Nevertheless, the trend indicates that EQ model being part of the DDR simulation will be inevitable.

At the summit, representatives from EDA vendors focusing on AMI and VHDL based approaches and a DDR manufacturer have shared their studies. Interested reader may find related presentation at the IBIS website. Following up these discussion, we at SPISim also performed several experiments of AMI on DDR. In this blog post, we would like to share some of the considerations on this topic as well.

Some major differences between SERDES vs DDR:

There are several major differences between SERDES and DDR interfaces which will affect how EQ models being used as part of the simulation:

  • Point-to-point vs Multi-Drop:

A SERDES channel is point-to-point, as shown above. Signals started from a TX propagate through the channel are received by one RX. This Tx-Rx connection may be cascaded in several stages with repeater being used in the middle. A repeater itself contains a Rx and Tx.  Repeater may be required as SERDES interfaces may extend very long…from controller to the edge of the board and beyond to connect to external devices (USB, SATA etc). Nevertheless, a SERDES channel looks like a single long “chain”. Thus the nature of the SEDES is “long” and “lossy”.

DDR, on the other hand, is multi-dropped by nature. There is usually one controller on board but several “DIMM”s connections on the other ends. For example, a typical laptop has two SO-DIMMs at least which has combinations of being soldered on board or plug-able through memory sockets. The desktop or server board will have more DIMMs to allow more installed memory. Depending on it’s dual channel, 3-channel or quad-channel etc, they may come in pairs of 2, 3 or 4 respectively. These memory modules usually do not reside too far away from the controller in order to avoid latency, thus no repeater mechanism is needed. The DDR’s topology presents a “short” yet “reflective” nature due to the impedance change at branch points and different termination within each DIMM modules.

  • Differential vs Single-ended, Embedded clock vs source synchronous:

SERDES interface are differential, that means they are more immune to noises such as voltage droop or ground bounces, as both P and N signals are susceptible to the same effect so the overall noise is cancelled out. That’s why power-aware models starting from IBIS V5.1 are rarely needed for SERDES. DDR, on the other hand, has many single-ended signals. All the DQ byte lanes are singled-ended so power noise is of a major concern.

Another architecture difference is clocking mechanism. SERDES uses embedded clock so clock signals need to be recovered at Rx from encoded bit-stream (e.g. 8b/10b), which is also part of the transmitted data. A CDR is needed to recover such clock signals and it itself is level sensitive/dependent. DDR uses source synchronous so clock is transmitted separately.

  • Operation modes:

For SERDES, there is one direction of signal propagation. Schematic-wise, Tx located at the far left while Rx sit at the far right. Some of the DDR (e.g. DQ) has both read and write modes. Both the controller and memory module can serve as Tx and Rx roles in different modes so the signal is bi-directional. In addition, there are different on-die-termination (ODT) in DDR so the impedance of different DDR module will be different depending on which one is receiving/driving. This “combinatorial” characteristics increases the complexities of EQ optimization as more dimensions need to be swept or analyzed.

Various EQ methods for DDR:

Until recent years, the analysis methods for  DDR and non-DDR interfaces are very similar. Topology (either pre-layout or post-layout) are composed or extracted for spice-like analysis in time domain. Worst case pattern may be decided in advanced or just perform long enough simulation to cover sufficient bit sequences. Time based or related performance parameters are than processed and compared against spec. to determine the channel performance.

With the higher bit-rate and low BER requirement, this approach is no longer valid for SERDES. StatEye like convolution based simulation has replaced spice simulation and EQ modeling are also changed to accommodate this analysis requirement. That is why the AMI are getting popular and important these days. We start seeing EQ in DDR4 3200 and will sure to see that being part of upcoming DDR5 and DDR6 etc. So what are the EQ modules we often used in SERDES can be applied to DDR?

  • FFE: Feed-forward equalizer. It uses various numbers of taps and weight to eliminate or de-emphasize the signals at different UI. As DDR is quite “reflective”, this EQ method should improve the link performance as it can be used to cancel ISI. The challenging part is that FFE tap weight is pre-defined and may not be adaptive during communication.

The screen-cap below show FFE effect on either single-ended (SE) or differential (DP) signals of different tap location.

  • CTLE: Continuous time linear equalizer. This is usually used to amplify signals of a particular frequency and/or provide DC boost. For example, USB3 operates mainly around 5GHz, thus a CTLE of boost at this frequency can help improving lossy channel for better signal quality. CTLE usually resides at the RX side, its another capabilities is to provide DC boost so that voltage swing received can be amplified to meet the eye requirement. Giving a data sheet:

  A set of CTLE curves are often available to boost these performance parameters in frequency domain:

As DDR channel is short but not that lossy, it’s been shown that CTLE is not that useful comparing to its role in SERDES.

  • DFE: Decision feedback equalizer. In SERDES, DFE comes with CDR as a DFE needs clock signals to preform “slicing” for tap adaptation:

While this is another form of ISI cancellation, it can be applied dynamically based on the link condition. So there is a period before the DFE will “lock-in” with stabled tap weights. For this reason, it has similar effect as FFE for a reflective channel yet may be more versatile. However, the DFE itself is non-linear so it can only perform in bit-by-bit mode. In contract, FFE is a FIR and can be used in both statistical and bit-by-bit mode simulation.

As both FFE and DFE show similar effects of ISI cancellation, there may be redundancies if both are used at the same time. Our study validates this assumption in one of the case whose results are shown below:

Both FFE and DFE alone will open the closed eye significantly yet when used both together, the results is not much different from only using one of them. If this is the case for most DDR cases, then the important topics is to perform “sweep” efficiently in order to find out number of taps and weights required in either FFE and DFE module used.

Insufficiencies of current AMI spec for DDR:

As of today, IBIS-AMI being applicable to DDR is still questionable. This is because IBIS-AMI so far is SERDES focused and it’s spec. need to be revised before DDR can be covered. Here are some of these shortcomings that we are aware of:

  • Step response/RF response:

In the spec, the “statistical” simulation flow describes that a channel’s impulse response is sent into Tx in the AMI_Init call. Practically, such impulse response only exists in theory and is not easily obtainable with circuit simulation. Instead, most link analysis use step response then post-process by taking derivative to obtain the impulse response. The assumption of this approach is that channel’s rising and falling transition are symmetric, which is usually not the case for single ended signals such as DDR. Thus in order to perform StatEye like convolution based link analysis more accurately, one may need to forgo the single impulse based statistical analysis flow but resolving to full sequence based (e.g. PRBS sequence) bit-by-bit flow.

  • Clocking:

IBIS spec. assumes the signaling is clock embedded as the only place where clock is mentioned is the function signature of AMI_GetWave:

The usage of this clock_time is “output” from the AMI model. That is, the (RX) model can optionally recover the clock from the “*wave” array then return the clock data back to circuit simulator. As mentioned previously, DDR is source synchronous so a clock signal is already available outside the “*wave” data. In my opinion, this is an easy change as the spec. can simply indicate that the “clock” data can be bi-directional, meaning that simulator may receive clocks elsewhere then pass its data into the AMI model using this clock_time signature while calling the AMI API. Then the RX’s DFE can make use of the pre-determined clocks to perform slicing and tap adaptation. Nevertheless, this clocking difference has not yet been addressed in the spec. as of today.

  • Signaling:

In the IBIS-AMI spec, user will find differential signal being assumed as the description below indicates stimulus is from -0.5 ~ 0.5:

By definition, a LTI EQ model’s transfer function is independent of the inputs being scaled and shifted, thus it basically behaves the same regardless of single-ended (SE) or differential (DP). A NLTV model, like RX DFE, does depend on the proper threshold to determine signal data bits. Thus whether it’s SE or DP does make difference just like whether the encoding scheme is NRZ or PAM4. Besides those descriptions change like shown above, a simulator/link analyzer can theoretically perform signal shift before calling AMI model then restore afterward automatically so that most of the developed AMI model mechanism can still be used. Alternatively, an AMI model can achieve similar effect using a level shifter if the spec. indicates that such adjustment will not be performed by the link simulator.

  The waveform shown above is a 3rd party vendor’s link simulator being applied to DDR analysis using IBIS-AMI. As one can see in the left, the channel characterization shows that the voltage swing of the single ended model is 0.4 volt ranging from 0.95 ~ 1.35. However, the waveform sent to IBIS-AMI models has been re-centered around 0.0 so the swing range is -0.2~0.2. Apparently, what the simulator has done is taking the ground based channel characterization result to convolve with differential stimulus required by the spec. This vendor’s simulator then does smartly restore the output from AMI model back to single ended so the final eye presented are shown at correct voltage level.

Other EQ modeling methods:

In this DesignCon IBIS summit, a VHDL/Verilog-A based modeling approach was also presented to show that with such EQ model/mechanism available, the traditional time-based simulation flow can still be used and for DDR, the million bit simulation (thus requires AMI like models) are not necessarily needed. That paper show comparable results such as eye margin etc obtained by this VHDL based model. Personally, I don’t think this result is viable too much beyond that particular study. The reason is that VHDL/Verilog-A as a modeling language has great limitations when being compared to C/C++ based language which AMI uses. This is particularly true in the following aspects:

  • Libraries: performing numerical computation in C/C++ is quite routine and many libraries have been developed so very rarely one needs to start from scratch. For example, GNU and LAPACK are both widely used as foundations of C/C++ based numerical analysis. Where are these counter parts in VHDL/Verilog-A? Without these, model development beyond simple sequential programming will be almost impossible or too tedius.
  • IP Protection: Compiled C/C++ codes are basically machine codes and can’t be easily de-compiled. This is why AMI is considered as IP protected while IBIS is only abstract to the behavioral level. VHDL/Verilog-A are mostly plain-text based and even when encryption/obfuscation is possible, the model soon becomes vendor simulator specific because only they can decrypt/interpret the scrambled codes. This defeats the purpose of the shareable model.
  • Speed/Flexibility: Interpret language will not be as efficient as compiled ones. While whether there is really needs for a compiled language such as C/C++ can be discussed, VHDL/Verilog-A will still be the less likely choices regardless. In my opinion, a possible direction may be language such as Python because it not only is open sourced, but also supports C API and has rich numerical libraries support (NumPy, SciPy)

The discussion above summarizes my understanding and observation of EQ or AMI’s usage for DDR. While the implementation may not necessarily be the same, I believe we can rest assured that EQ will be part of DDR spec to come. Even if it’s not AMI, it will just be built on top of existing modeling methodologies so far just like AMI stands on the shoulder of transitional IBIS.