RE: [vhdl-200x-ft] IP Protection Syntax & VHDL

Jim,

The protected regions need to be lexical and not semantic for the
greatest level of flexibility in what gets encrypted vs. not encrypted.
Therefore, the protect-begin-end structure won't work as it is semantic.

The syntax of the lexically specified protected areas is not the most
important part of the proposal, by which I mean that if someone can come
up with something better than `protect or whatever is proposed, please
forward that.

-Steve Bailey

> Hi,
> I was just browsing the IP encryption proposal.
> I noticed that its syntax is not exactly VHDL in that it uses
> `protect as a keyword.
>
> I have two conflicting perspectives on this:
> 1) Leave it alone. It seems here there would be a big
> advantage for tool vendors to have compatibility between the
> VHDL and Verilog protection approaches.
> From a user perspective, even if we VHDLize the syntax, I
> don't think it would result in less typing.
> Note, this argument has most meaning if the protection syntax
> for both VHDL and Verilog are identical.
>
> 2) Make it VHDL like. There seems to be two distinct
> regions, a setup/declarative section and a code to be
> protected region. This would seem to suggest that the syntax
> would be more like:
> protect
> -- declarations
> begin -- protected region
> -- protected code
> end protect ;
>
> I don't really think this (2) is a good thing. Once you
> start considering how do we create the pragma values in
> VHDL it starts getting interesting. Particularly
> considering that some pragmas are used more than once in
> the same region.
>
>
> While my inclination is to leave it alone, I think everyone
> should be aware that the syntax is not quite VHDL and be
> ready to ballot positively. If you do have an objection to
> the current syntax, make sure to propose an alternative.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jim Lewis
> Director of Training mailto:Jim@SynthWorks.com
> SynthWorks Design Inc. http://www.SynthWorks.com
> 1-503-590-4787
>
> Expert VHDL Training for Hardware Design and Verification
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
Received on Fri Dec 24 09:40:28 2004