Meeting minutes for the SV-CC Committee November 5, 2002, 9:00-10:00am PST Attendees: [-xxxxxxx--] Yatin Trivedi (ASIC Group, Ex-Chair) [----xxx-x-] Tarak Parikh (@HDL) [-xx-xxxxx-] Francoise Martinole (Cadence) [xx--xxxxx-] Stuart Swan (Cadence) [-----xxxxx] John Amouroux (Mentor) [-----x--xx] Emerald Holzwarth (Mentor) [----xxxxx-] John Stickley (Mentor) [-----xxx-x] Doug Warmke (Mentor) [-xx-xxxxxx] Michael Rohleder (Motorola) [xx-xxxxx-x] Kevin Cameron (National Semi) [----------] Tayung Liu (Novas) [xxxx-xxxxx] Bassam Tabbara (Novas) [----xxxxxx] Swapnajit Mittra (SGI, Chair) [-x----xx--] Darryl Parham (Sun) [xx-x------] Simon Davidmann (Synopsys) [x-xx------] Peter Flake (Synopsys) [xxxxxxxxxx] Joao Geada (Synopsys) [xx-xxxxxxx] Ghassan Khoory (Synopsys, Co-Chair) [xxxx-xxxxx] Andrzej Litwiniuk (Synopsys) [--x-xxxx-x] Alain Reynaud (Tensilica) [-----xxx--] Mike McNamara (Verisity) [---------x] Kurt Takara (0-In) 1. Swapnajit's general issues Yatin has stepped down from the committee chair position, and Swapnajit is assuming this responsibility. Swapnajit forsees that with the many issues facing us we will need to determine a prioritization scheme. He will be proposing something in a future meeting, along with some rules to determine the lifetime of issues. Swapnajit will not be present at the Nov. 7th face-to-face meeting, but he is working with Bassam (who will chair this meeting) and all of us to get the agenda and some basic slides together. Swapnajit is still working with the folks that manage the eda.org server to try to get the issue pages moved over there to eliminate the browser pop-ups. 2. Roll call The "rolling" attendance list at the top of the meeting notes the attendees. 3. Approval of minutes Last week's minutes were approved. 4. Discussion of ISSUE 1.4 ISSUE 1.4, titled "No clear relationship to other APIs" In this issue, Michael has pointed out that if Direct C code calls other API functions (notably PLI functions), then the simulator would have to ensure that objects like internally-cached data and the like would be flushed to provide correct functionality to the model. But in doing so, the simulation may slow down by either having to perform such steps or by limiting optimization steps. Andrzej proposed that maybe only access should be granted to those objects on the formal parameter list, and Kevin noted that with C++ we have the "const" paradigm. Kevin also pointed out that SystemVerilog already has facilities for such things. Michael and Doug both clarified this issue to be that we simply need to decide if a C routine can call PLI-like routines or not. And if so, how do we also allow for optimizations? Joao noted that simple PLI functions like io_printf will be very useful for C routines to call, and others noted that allowing the PLI calls will makes things much easier for the users. Joao proposed adorning the safe (no PLI calls) vs. unsafe (makes PLI calls) functions with something like "extern "D", for dirty/unsafe functions. He noted that we could make this adornment flexible much like the attribute list in the "C" fopen syntax. Michael like this idea, but just wanted a simple syntax. Andrzej proposed a different method, where users would call a special routine to tell the simulator that they will now be getting dirty, but after some discussion the group consensus was that a simple "extern D" type of syntax was preferered. ACTION: Joao, Michael, and Doug to discuss this syntax off-line. 5. Discussion of ISSUE 1.5 ISSUE 1.5, titled "Should use a common and unique prefix for all functions" All quickly agreed that a standard here was good, and required. Swapnajit suggested that we vote on this at Thursday's meeting, so we will need some pre-meeting proposals to be floated around beforehand so that we can all make informed votes. ACTION: All/anyone propose a prefix scheme. At the meeting the prefixes "sv_" and "vc_" were mentioned. 6. Discussion of agenda for the Nov. 7th meeting. Some ideas were: C calls Verilog Verilog calls C DirectC-style vs. System C-style syntax Cadence's C++ proposal Joao and John S's HDL to C communication ideas Andrzej's proposal Andrzej's [to be filed] ISSUE about C calling Verilog system tasks ACTION: All please send your items to Swapnajit so he can finalize the agenda. The meeting will be held at: Synopsys 700 East Middlefield Road Building B, Diamond Conference Room Mountain View, CA 9am - 5pm PST [Teleconference numbers will be provided later.] 7. Meeting adjourned.