Re: [sv-bc] Please respond with your #1 SV-BC enhancement priority (due by end of January)

From: Surya Pratik Saha <spsaha@cal.interrasystems.com>
Date: Wed Jan 27 2010 - 22:37:31 PST
I completely agree with Shalom. Ideally there should be a proper balance of users and language implementors both in the language committee. But the problem is - most of the committee members are language implementors here in SV. So many features added in SV are very rarely used. And I got feedback from many designers/users that SV is huge, and the peopled getting frightened to digest the whole. That should not be the case if we ask designer/user's feedback more frequently when SV is developed. Though I am not sure how to execute it.
Regards
Surya


-------- Original Message  --------
Subject: Re:[sv-bc] Please respond with your #1 SV-BC enhancement priority (due by end of January)
From: Bresticker, Shalom <shalom.bresticker@intel.com>
To: Brad Pierce <Brad.Pierce@synopsys.com>, sv-bc@eda.org <sv-bc@eda.org>
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:51:39 AM
But we should make sure that the enhancements are the right ones, the ones that will give the greatest benefits to the users.
If we take operator overloading, for example, then it is true that it is not very much implemented, but neither have I heard users complaining about it very much.
Hopefully, the current process will give us insight into what users really need.

Shalom 

  
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sv-bc@eda.org [mailto:owner-sv-bc@eda.org] On 
Behalf Of Brad Pierce
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:06 AM
To: sv-bc@eda.org
Subject: RE: [sv-bc] Please respond with your #1 SV-BC 
enhancement priority (due by end of January)

Surya,

I'm reminded of a recent interview in CACM with Prith 
Banerjee, the director of HP Labs,

   http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/1/55745-qa-hps-running-man

Q: How do you inspire your researchers to think big?

A: Unless I engage with the researchers on a regular basis, 
the passion will not be there, the intensity will not be 
there. I say, "What are you trying to build? Can we not do 
something bigger?" Then I say, "The specific research you are 
doing, how will it make that dream come true?" There's an 
unrelenting pressure that I want to be able to feel -- that 
if we don't do it, someone else will.

Q: Before you joined HP, you spent more than 20 years in 
academia. Did you find the transition difficult?

A: Many people warned me, "Prith, you will not survive." 
Fortunately, my experience in academia was not in only one 
position. I also took two exits into the world of startups, 
and what I learned from those startups are things I've tried 
to preach and practice at HP Labs.

Q: Such as?

A: In academia, professors can work and work and refine their 
papers to the last word. The world of startups doesn't give 
you that luxury. I learned how to deliver fast. I learned how 
to run -- I am always running. I try to convey that to my 
colleagues at HP Labs -- you have to find the right 
trade-off. I want you to document your work. I want you to 
advance the state of the art, but don't just keep on 
publishing and refining -- run, right? Start making stuff, as well.

-- Brad


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sv-bc@eda.org [mailto:owner-sv-bc@eda.org] On 
Behalf Of Surya Pratik Saha
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 8:31 PM
To: sv-bc@eda.org
Subject: Re: [sv-bc] Please respond with your #1 SV-BC 
enhancement priority (due by end of January)

Hi All,
Regarding this discussion, I want to add few more points. I think the 
committee gives more emphasis on new enhancements rather than 
consolidation of current features which are already there. There are 
many ambiguities in the LRM for many features. And if new 
enhancements 
added, the number of ambiguities will be more. So I think it is best 
time to resolve the ambiguities of the existing feature so 
that all tool 
vendors work in similar way unless they have bugs. The 
ambiguities can 
be collected from the various open Mantis items. I am not against the 
new features, but we should not be that much proactive, if to resolve 
one ambiguity a new feature is required, then it should be allowed.

Not only the ambiguities, I can see some features are too 
difficult to 
implement that no tool vendors are yet too support though 
those are part 
of SV 2005. Or maybe the designers do not have that much 
interest to use 
them. One example is operator overloading. So we should look 
into those 
areas too.

Regards
Surya



-------- Original Message  --------
Subject: Re:[sv-bc] Please respond with your #1 SV-BC enhancement 
priority (due by end of January)
From: John Michael Williams <john@svtii.com>
To: sv-bc@eda.org <sv-bc@eda.org>
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:48:27 AM
    
Hi All.

I would like to see the Std document written to define
"usage levels" or some such idea.

For example, "core" usage might be verilog; "extended functional"
usage might be verilog, with C and C++ features.  The different
usage levels should be separated explicitly in the Std.   
      
Every level
    
should be usable for simulation and include a synthesizable subset.

Another way of defining usage level might include a level
with only synthesizable constructs.

Yet another might include verilog with interfaces or 
      
assertions, etc.
    
The reason for this would be to permit tool vendors to
"ease into" SystemVerilog by well-defined stages of progress.
This would permit vendors to claim incomplete support for
SystemVerilog in precise, well-understood terms.

My limited experience with SystemVerilog is that it is frustratingly
complicated and poorly supported, when comparing tool functionality
with the full Std.  It's a "heap big" Std!

Perhaps the Std project could be explicitly segmented, the way VHDL
has been?

A big handicap is the fact that the same result can be obtained in
so many ways:  always and always_comb, for example.  This is no
problem when a specific designer is developing his or her own
style, but it makes maintenance of the code difficult for
others who have become accustomed to a different subset of the
available SystemVerilog constructs.

I think "enhancing" a language by just adding new ways to accomplish
the same result (in simulation or synthesis) creates a less well
designed and less usable language in the end.

Reducing the complexity of SystemVerilog by any means would increase
its acceptance by designers and project managers.  Reorganizing the
document would be one way of doing this.

On 01/26/2010 01:00 PM, Brad Pierce wrote:
      
Background 1: http://www.eda-stds.org/sv-ieee1800/hm/0956.html
Background 2: http://bit.ly/7RDGox
Background 3: http://tinyurl.com/sv-bc-enhancement-requests

Because of the reasons in the above links, Matt and I need your 
feedback on what SV-BC subscribers consider to be their #1 SV-BC 
enhancement priority for the next revision, and why. We'll 
        
roll it up 
    
into a short presentation to the Working Group.

The rules --

    0) This a public process, so all replies go to the 
        
reflector, not 
    
just to Matt or me.
    1) You must include the number of a Mantis item. If 
        
your #1 issue 
    
is not yet in Mantis, add it first, or get someone to add 
        
it for you.
    
    2) You must include a reason why this enhancement is 
        
critical for 
    
users.
    3) Replies due by end of January.
    4) If you believe no SV-BC enhancements should be made in the 
next revision, that's an OK answer, but it needs a reason, too.

Thanks for your help,

-- Brad



        


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