IEEE P1076.1 Working Group Telco Meeting Minutes - August 18, 2009 8am PDT (15:00 GMT)

Status: Approved by WG on 22 September 2009.

Attendees

• Ernst Christen (chair, meeting convener)
• Joachim Haase
• John Shields
• David Smith
• Alain Vachoux (note taker)

Agenda

• Call to order
• Approval of agenda
• Administrative issues
  1. Minutes of last meeting
  2. Web site
  3. Review of IEEE patent policy
• Revision of IEEE Std 1076.1.1: results of WG vote
• Detailed review of new projects for revision of IEEE Std 1076.1
• Next meeting
• AOB
• Adjourn

1. Call to order on August 18, 2009 at 8:10 PDT

Ernst welcomed the participants and started presenting the meeting slides.

2. Approval of Agenda

Agenda unanimously approved.

3. Administrative Issues

Motion from David to approve the minutes of the July 14 meeting. Joachim seconded. Minutes unanimously approved without modifications.

Alain presented the new P1076.1 web site. Still under construction. Links to previous web sites kept as 1999 initial release and 2007 revision of the 1076.1 standard. New work areas for P1076.1.1-2010 revision and P1076.1-201X revision with public and private (WG member only) parts. David mentioned that the TWiki site does not provide open registration to the site. This has to be done by the webmaster.

Ernst mentioned a discussion started with Alain about registration and membership. Must be continued between WG officers, including David and John Willis.

Alain mentioned that the email archive is no more working properly. He will look at the problem.

4. Revision of IEEE Std 1076.1.1: Results of WG Vote

Draft PAR approved by WG on August 12. PAR to be approved by DASC on August 20. PAR will be sent to IEEE NesCom for its October 19 deadline. Ernst contacted Peter Ashenden, editor of the 1076.1-2007 LRM, about updating the 1076.1.1 LRM and for a quote. The amount of work should be minimal. According to David, there should be enough money in the WG account for that.

5. Detailed Review of New Projects for Revision of IEEE Std 1076.1

David proposed a way to organize project areas on the web site and to link them to revisions. Alain will implement the proposal. Once projects are properly presented on the web, we'll can proceed to a WG vote on importances and priorities.

Ernst presented the status of the work done by John and him on the support of mixed netlists in VHDL-AMS. Summary of the discussion:
[David] Verilog-AMS has definitions.
[John] These have been considered when developing the original work.
[Ernst] The Verilog-AMS definitions are not referred in the requirements. VHDL-AMS has more strict rules (types/natures).
[David] Use model should be included in the requirements.
[Ernst] Agrees. The requirement set is not complete.
[Alain] Ask for a consistent naming: conversion model or interface element?
[John] This is important in LRM definitions, but we are not there yet.
[Alain] What does the 'SHAPE attribute represent?
[Ernst] It describes structural information on the type or nature, e.g., scalar, array, record.
[John] It is not related to the actual type or nature.
[John] Need to define a mechanism for elaboration.
[Joachim] (slide #11) Is REAL'SHAPE converted to BIT'SHAPE?
[Ernst] No. 'SHAPE is a structural property. Wire objects must be converted to actual signals/terminals at elaboration time.
[John] Need to define a colloquial way to describe the mechanism. Shapes relate to abstract wires.

David had to left the meeting at 9:09 PDT.

[Alain] (slide #12) Unique dominant wire view means same type/nature for all contributing wires.
[Ernst] Presented work is an architecture of a solution. Considerable work remains to be done on elaboration issues.
[John] White paper has details on power supply (VDD, gnd) handling.
[Joachim] (slide #15) Is there a signal to signal category?
[John] This has been a VHDL 1076 issue, but rejected in that context. Clear use cases are still needed.
[Ernst] VHDL 1076 provides some solution using functions in port declarations.
[John] Better not introducing wire concepts in digital domain.
[John] (slide #16) Curious to know WG feedback on open issues.

6. Next Meeting

Face to face meeting on September 22 in Nice, France. Colocated with FDL'09 conference. Announcement and agenda will follow.

7. AOB

None.

8. Adjourn

Ernst adjourned the meeting at 9:37 PDT.