RE: BTF proposal to p1800

Hi Steven,

Thanks for taking the initiative and sending this request. I anticipated
that 1800 SV WG will need to discuss and decide on the work continuation
and structure of 1364 technical groups. Therefore, I have already
included this in our agenda for the 1800 WG F2F meeting next Monday
(8/9/04).
I am taking the action item to communicate and report back on this, to
1364.

Regards,

--- Johny.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Sharp [mailto:sharp@cadence.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 1:29 AM
To: Srouji, Johny; ieee1800@eda.org
Cc: peter@ashenden.com.au; stds-dasc-sc@eda.org; stds-dasc@eda.org;
e.rashba@ieee.org
Subject: BTF proposal to p1800

The IEEE 1364 Behavioral Task Force (BTF) is writing to request that
the new IEEE organization make a provision for continuing our work
on Verilog/SystemVerilog datatypes.

The datatypes subgroup of the IEEE 1364 BTF was formed in anticipation
of the donation of the Accellera 3.1a specification to the IEEE to
ensure that the proposed extensions to Verilog datatypes in 3.1a are
incorporated into the Verilog base language in a consistent and useful
way. The charter of this group includes the definition of objects that
have storage, values, and operations on those values.

The focus of the BTF has been on extending the data type extensions
defined in 3.1a to nets and resolving inconsistencies between the two
specifications that would inhibit integration. Since this work covers
both IEEE 1364-2001 and 3.1a it cannot be logically segregated to one or
the other.

The extension of new datatypes to nets is a product of the orthogonality
principle that was unanimously endorsed by the BTF. Datatype
orthogonality
means that the update semantics of an object and the set of values that
the object can have are independent of one another. Under the principle
of datatype orthogonality, a value set for an object can be specified
(the set of real numbers, a set of structure values, etc.) separately
from the update semantics of the object (variable, net, etc.). This
principle is a key element of language design that strengthens its
usability.

It is important to provide a forum in which to continue this work within
the working group to ensure that a consistent, standard solution is
developed and adopted by the WG to avoid the risk that variant
implementations will arise. Having this work done under the auspices
and direction of the P1800 WG will allow that group to guide and
determine the organization and schedule of this work so as not to impede
progress in other areas.

------------- End Forwarded Message -------------

The preceding proposal was approved by the membership of the BTF,
of which I am the chair.

Steven Sharp
sharp@cadence.com
Received on Tue Aug 3 04:00:33 2004