From jose Mon Nov 20 21:30:40 1995
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Date: Mon, 20 Nov 95 21:09:52 PST
From: jose (Jose Torres)
Message-Id: <9511210509.AA10192@vhdl.vhdl.org>
To: math
Subject: minutes from DASC meeting on 10/19/95
Status: RO


VHDL MATH PACKAGE WORKING GROUP, P1076.2 

Minutes of meeting in Newton, MA on October 19, 1995


Present: Jose Torres (Chair), jose@vhdl.org
	 John Hines
	 Ernst Christen
	 Bob Collins

Next meeting: most probably at next VIUF meeting

SUMMARY OF MEETING

J. Torres presented an overview of balloting results, gave a summary of main 
areas addressed by either negative ballots or comments, discussed status of the 
IEEE copyright issue regarding distribution of the source code for the packages,
and presented the tentative schedule to bring this effort to completion.

Ernst C. talked about needs of the Analog group and situation regarding the 
floating point precision in VHDL and the Analog group requirements.

There was a discussion on what to do regarding the source code for the packages
and the documentation for the standard.

1. BALLOTING RESULTS

Balloting for 1076.2 was closed around the middle of September with the 
following results:

	Affirmative votes:	46
	Negative votes:		 7	
	Abstentions:		 2
		TOTAL		55

	Number of eligible voters in the balloting group: 72

Therefore, 1076.2 PASSED with 86% affirmative votes, and 76% eligible ballots
were returned.

The main comments received in the ballots are in the following areas:
	- style and consistency (naming conventions, error messages, use of 
	  constants)
	- typos
	- rejection of IEEE copyright restriction on distribution of packages
	- extensions for additional functionality
	- problems found in some functions for corner cases

It was mentioned that the working group is working on addressing all the 
comments and making necessary changes to convert the negative ballots into
positive ones.  Depending on the magnitude of the changes, a decision will be
made at that point on whether or not a re-balloting is necessary.

2. IEEE COPYRIGHT ISSUE

There were 4 negative ballots due to the request from IEEE to remove the free
distribution clause from the packages.  People attending the meeting also
mentioned that they or their companies were not happy with such decision
and suggested to remove the source code from the documentation to avoid
this constraint and document the standard in the way is done in ADA for
similar functionality.

Jose took the action item to check with IEEE the status of this item and 
present the suggestion to the working group for their consideration when
addressing the comments from the ballots.

3. SCHEDULE

The following tentative schedule was presented (contingent on the decision to
re-ballot the standard):
	- Review Ballots and address comments:	10/15 - 11/30
	- Submit to IEEE board: 12/15
	- Approval: either Q4'95 or Q1'96

If reballoting is recommended, the the schedule would look like follows:
	- Review Ballots and address comments:	10/15 - 11/30
	- Re-ballot: 12/15 - 2/1
	- Review ballots: 2/15 - 3/15
	- Submit to IEEE board: 4/15
	- Approval: Q2'96
	
4. ANALOG GROUP STATUS on PRECISION for TYPE REAL

Ernst C. mentioned that the most likely direction in the Analog working group
regarding the precision issue (currently LRM only requires 6 digits of 
precision) was to request a change in the LRM to increase the precision for
type REAL.  If this is the final recommendation, then no additional changes
will be required in the Math packages to support the required precision by
Analog, since the changes would be in the simulators themselves to support
the new precision required by the LRM.

5. WHERE TO FIND INFORMATION

The latest version of the packages is available through anonymous ftp from 
vhdl.org, in the directory /vi/math/package, file names are: 
	math_head.6.13.95.vhd
	math_body.6.13.95.vhd

		or

	math.6.13.95.tar.Z	-- for tar compressed version of the 2 files


The packages can be retrieved as follows:

ftp vhdl.org
username: anonymous
password: <your e-mail address>
ftp> cd /vi/math/package
ftp> get math_head.6.13.95.vhd
ftp> get math_body.6.13.95.vhd
ftp> bye

If you do not have access to ftp, send an e-mail request to jose@vhdl.org