What IBIS Model Versions are Supported?

Schematic Simulation (Ngspice)
1

Hello,

(KiCad 9.0.4, Windows 11)

I’ve used KiCad’s IBIS simulation capability in the past, but today I’m trying a different part and I get this error in the schematic editor when I try to add the model:

Unknown keyword in COMPONENT context: series_pin_mapping
Error on line 222
Invalid IBIS file ‘C:\Users...\cdclvpx.ibs’

I tried commenting out the offending lines and I get a different error. The model in question is:

[IBIS ver] 4.1
[File name] cdclvpx.ibs
[File Rev] 1.3
[Date] 09/30/2013
[Source]
| Texas Instruments Incorporated.
| Analog-eLab Design Center, HPA
| 12500 TI Blvd
| Dallas, TX -75243

At 12 years old, this IBIS model shouldn’t be pushing the state of the art, so I’m wondering: Does KiCad’s IBIS support stop at a certain [IBIS ver] level? I couldn’t find this in the KiCad help.

Thanks,

Rob

2

IBIS 2.1 is supported. Newer version might have issues.

3

I found an existing issue and added my 2 cents:

Rob

4

@Drinausaur Posted a table on gitlab a while ago: Support for IBIS V3.2 (was: parsing an IBIS v3.2 model fails with "unknown keyword") (#17997) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab

Not sure if this is still up to date. But looks like all of 2.1 is supported and a little bit of 3.2.

5

If you can build KiCad from source, you could try the patch I attached to the GitLab issue. That adds support for a lot of the IBIS 4.0 and 5.0 features - enough to let me use the Micron DRAM IBIS models.

1 Like
6

Hi Martin,

Thanks for this, but I don’t have the skill set to build from source. I can only hope that your patch gives the KiCad developers a leg up on adding the capability to an upcoming version.

Thanks,

Rob