Minutes of the meeting of the DASC Steering Committee on 12 June 2002 in New Orleans. Present: Paul Menchini (Chair), Menchini & Associates, mench@mench.com John Shields, Synopsys, JohnShields@synopsys.com Michael McNamara, Verisity Design, mac@verilog.com John Hillawi, DA Solutions, hillawi@eda.org Jose Torres, Circuit Semantics, jose@circuitsemantics.com Perry Alexander, KU-ITTC, alex@ittc.ku.edu Joe Daniels, Chippewea@aol.com Peter Ashenden, Ashenden Designs, peter@ashenden.com.au Greg Peterson, Univ Tennessee, gdp@utk.edu John Beatty, IBM, jbeatty@us.ibm.com Archie Lachner, Mentor Graphics, archie_lachner@mentor.com Joanne DeGroat, Ohio State Univ, degroat.1@osu.edu Dennis Brophy, Model Technology, dennisb@model.com John Willis, FTL Systems, jwillis@ftlsys.com Adam Morawiec, ECSI, Adam.Morawiec@ecsi.org Alex Zamfirescu, ASC, hxml@pcabell.net Alan Mantooth, Univ Arkansas, mantooth@engr.uark.edu Meeting opened at 2:10pm Those present introduced themselves. Paul then summarized the purpose of DASC as coordinating and supporting working groups it sponsors. He referred those interested to the Process at a Glance description on standards.ieee.org. He noted that he is a member of RevCom and is a Member at Large of the Standards Association Board of Governers and so is in a good position to help promote the interests of standards working groups. 1. Purchase of projectors ------------------------- Paul noted that LCD projectors are insanely expensive to rent, and that we might buy one for the equivalent of a few days' rental. We would need two to allow for parallel meetings. Paul proposed he investigate cost and seek budget from IEEE. We would need to plan where to locate the projectors to be able to get them to meetings conveniently. Motion: That Paul investigate cost of purchasing two projectors, post details on the email list and call for an approval vote on whether to purchase. [Hillawi/Beatty] Passed with no opposition. 2. Standards Association Membership ----------------------------------- Paul informed the meeting of developments in a review of SA membership arrangements. Currently, people must be SA members to be eligible to ballot draft standards. A $10 annualmembership fee is levied. Given that the fee does not cover the cost of collection, people find its imposition objectionable. The SA Board of Governers recently sought to increase the fee to $20, but were persuaded by Paul not to, pending a review of membership programs. The original motivation for the individual membership program was to raise income to allow publication of standards for free. Paul is now working with IEEE staff to develop an alternate proposal for funding freely available standards. The model he is working on involves sponsors nominating standards to be made freely available and to put money up front during the standard development process to fund the standards' publication. Paul suggested that it would be preferable not to add a general assessment to IEEE dues to fund standards, as this would compromise the independence of SA. It was noted that if funding input was required as part of the standards development process, it should be separated from technical approval of a PAR. In particular, approval should not be contingent on funding. Those present expressed support for Paul's model and encouraged him to continue the process. A related issue is that of distribution of code from standards. Paul and John Willis agreed to contact ProCom regarding a standard form for this. IEC Liaison ----------- John Hillawi summarized the agreement in place between DASC and IEC for fast-track injection of standards into the IEC process. He pointed out that it requires close coordination, with IEC member country representatives being involved in the DASC/SA review process. That way, input from representatives is handled early and does not delay consideration at IEC. Paul suggested that at PAR approval in the DASC-SC, we ensure that an IEC liaison or delegate is involved in the working group. Working groups need to ensure that an IEC representative is included in the balloting constituency. 1. Purchase of projectors (reprise) ----------------------------------- Dennis Brophy had information about projector prices, since Accellera had recently acquired one. He is able to get a discount. Motion: That Paul seek up to $5,000 from IEEE to purchase two projectors, hard-shell cases and insurance. [Zamfirescu/Willis] Passed with no objection. 3. Working Group Status Reports ------------------------------- P1029 WAVES: Standard in place, no report. P1076 VASG: (See attached vasg_status_6_02.ppt) Standard approved in March 2002 and now available. Working Group members entitled to a free copy. VASG plans to meet late July to plan further work. P1076 VHPI: Final draft to go on web next week, then to go to Paul for technical editing into 1076 LRM. Ballot expected early next year, subject to Accellera funding for tech editing. Investigating whether to request PAR for 1076b revision to focus ballot on changes only. In response to a question on validation of the specification, it was noted there are three or four implementations tracking the spec and feeding issues into the working group. P1076.1 VHDL-AMS: Standard in place, no report. P1076.1.1 VHDL-AMS Packages: Draft packages being revised. Seeking input from domain experts. Expect to ballot late fall 2002. Working group info is on VHDL-AMS web site and email list. P1076.2 VHDL Math Packages: Recently finalized ballot group for reaffirmation. P1076.3 VHDL Synthesis Packages: (See attached 1076.3_DAC2002Gold.ppt) Task group considering proposal for floating point package. David Bishop leading. This may be subject of a new PAR. The Working Group is also reviewing new requirements for numeric_std package. P1076.4 VITAL: Standard in place, no report. P1076.5 Lib IEEE: no report. P1076.6 VHDL Synth Interop: report from W/G chair: 1076.6 is progressing well. Our goal is to get a draft specification ready for balloting this year. It looks like we are on target to accomplish this. We are holding phone meetings every 2-3 weeks. Our effort is divided into three separate efforts: Synthesis Semantics, Pragmas, and supported syntax. The completion status of these efforts is as follows: - Semantics are 90% complete. - Pragmas are 75% complete. - Syntax is complete. The work from each of these efforts is being integrated into the draft specification. As each of these tasks are completed, we will be conducting an internal review and clean up of the draft before being ready for balloting. P1164 VHDL Std Logic: Working Group has proposals for minor changes. Peter Ashenden needs to follow up on their analysis. P1364 Verilog: 2002 revision approved. Working Group has some errata to publish. They can develop an "interpretations" document. The working group will approve this and the IEEE will publish it in an appropriate form. The W/G will start work on System Verilog down the track. P1364.1 Verilog Synth Interop: currently in ballot. P1481 DPC: PAR for revision to be considered by NesCom this week. The draft will deal with signal integrity, noise and other issues. Ballot expected next year. P1497 SDF: Standard in place, no report. P1499 OMF: Standard in place, no report. P1551 SID: W/G moribund, but PAR still open. P1577 OOVHDL: W/G moribund, but PAR still open. P1603 ALF: Editing will be done by next week, expect ballot in August. Need to start process to form ballot body. A parser is available from the ASC web site. CHDStd S/G: Name changed to OpenAccess, but S/G inactive. SLD S/G: inactive, but may reactivate later when Accellera SLD work comes to IEEE. VHDL RF/MW S/G: Meeting last week and again this week in technical issues. Requirements are done and expect reference implementations Sep-02. PAR is pending resolution of patent and copyright issues with IEEE. 4. Any other business --------------------- Next meeting: FDL-02, 24-27 September, Marseilles, France. Date and time to be confirmed. The meeting closed at 4:05pm