RE: [sv-bc] packed array question

>From: "Rich, Dave" <Dave_Rich@mentor.com>

>Yes, that was part of the reason. Another reason was, at one time, int, integer 
and char did not have a totally fixed size; they were fixed for a platform or OS 
implementation. (char could be 8 or 16 bits depending if it was representing 
ASCII or Unicode).

Even when that was true, it only meant that it would not be good practice
to define fixed hardware in terms of them.  There might still have been
reasonable uses.  And it isn't true for most of the types any longer.


>Another reason is to not think of these types a bit vectors, they are variables 
that hold values.

I'm sorry, but I don't see the distinction.  A bit vector is a variable
that holds values.  An integer variable is represented as a bit vector.
You can apply any operation to an integer variable that you can apply to
a bit vector (including bit and part selects), and vice versa.  What is
this distinction you are trying to make?

The only differences I am aware of are the different treatment by DPI
(for which there is good reason), and this different treatment in packed
array declarations (for which I have yet to hear any).

This isn't a particularly important issue, but the restriction seems to
be arbitrary.

Steven Sharp
sharp@cadence.com