ALF meeting Nov. 12, 2001

Attendees:

Peter Christensen	Magma
Kim Nguyen		Tera Systems
Joe Daniels		Accellera
Alex Zamfirescu		ASC
Tak Young		Monterey
Tim Baldwin		Monterey (by phone)
Wolfgang Roethig	NEC
Dennis Brophy		Mentor Graphics
Greg DuFour		Mentor Graphics
Kevin Grotjohn		LSI Logic (by phone)
Vassilios Gerousis	Infineon

AI Status:

Email IEEE membership # to Wolfgang - all
   IN PROCESS

Publish ALF parser development schedule - ASC
    RELEASED; DONE.

Set up ftp site for testcase submission - Wolfgang
   Wolfgang discussed Gabe Moretti's proposal with the group.
   (Wolfgang to provide more details.)

Contact Design and Test Magazine editors and develop a one-page article - Alex
   Alex will contact Peter Asheden, who is the DASC editor assigned to this area.
   This article needs to be completed soon for a January publication date.

Sequence to comment on the ALF spec relative to their parser - Sergei
    DELAYED

Review VHDL AMS and summarize the proposed semantics for ALF - Alex
   Alex discussed his progress and now suggests using Rosetta as a basis.

Edit  work doc according to review results - Wolfgang
   DONE; Wolfgang showed this during later discussion.

Draft revised version of open letter - Wolfgang
   DONE; Wolfgang showed this during later discussion.

Review Ch 7 - 11 in the work doc - all
   IN PROGRESS; this will be enhanced during subsequent (TC) meetings starting on Nov 28.

Send parser issue report from ASC to reflector - Alex
    Alex will upload this from his laptop later this week (once he recovers from his disk crash).

New AIs:

	Contact Paul Menchini to set up space account - Wolfgang

	Convert working document to Word format (for Alex) - Wolfgang

	Develop an ITS (Issue Tracking System) for ALF - Alex

	Review SKEW keyword use - Wolfgang

Meeting Schedule:

   Weds from 1:30 - 3 pm PT, starting Nov 28, 2001. Most reviewers will only need to attend once a month or so.
We will start reviewing Ch 5 -8 on Nov 28, then Ch 9, 10, and 11 each subsequent week.

Industry Status Update:

   Alex expanded on the EE Times article (11/07/01). The ASC parser now supports all features. This will roll out on Nov 19.
The parser also produces xml for verifying the output. Wolfgang solicited test case libraries, particulary from Tera. 
They will respond to this request later this week.

Open Letter Update:

   Wolfgang presented his updated version of the Open Letter promoting ALF as an emerging  IEEE standard.
Alex added a history of the relationships between various piece-parts, de-facto standards, industry APIs, and actual
library and design databases. The group later edited the letter further and agreed to have their upper management
review the overall proposal.

Parser Update and Issues:

   Alex already handled this during the second preceding item.
Any current ALF parser developers need to detail these issues in the relevant chapters within the spec.

Reviewer's Guidelines:

   Wolfgang walked the group through the process of how to review the IEEE spec. 
See this guideline on the website.

Working Document Review (of enhancements):

	Ch 8, MONITOR statement for VECTORS
	Sergei needs to publish his arguments so the group can be fully informed in voting on this issue (2 - in favor, 
	2 - against, 2 - abstain). This carries over until the next meeting per Alex and Wolfgang.

	Ch 13, Semantics of SUPPLYTYPE and SUPPLY_CLASS for multi-rail support
	This issue has now been closed (4 - in favor, 0 - against, 2 - abstain).

	Ch 14, Amended semantics of RESTRICT_CLASS and SWAP_CLASS
	Change "behavioral RTL" to "RTL" within the definition of 'synthesis' in Table 2 (p. 34).
	The group then discussed using the term "any" versus "all" as an additional annotation.
	Kevin requested the other members further review the feedback noted by Sequence.
	This carries over until the next meeting per Kevin and Wolfgang.

	Ch 16, Amended semantics of CONNECTIVITY
	Wolfgang presented this proposal; the group agreed to try and close it during the next meeting.

	Ch 17, Amended semantics of PULSEWIDTH, PERIOD
	This proposal has been accepted (6 - in favor, 0 - against, 0 - abstain).

	Ch 18, Amended definition of TIME and FREQUENCY statement in the context of arithmetic model
	This proposal is approved in principle, subject to feedback from members currently doing development.

	Ch 19, Reference to models in other format than ALF
	Wolfgang highlighted some of the issues this issues presents. Alex will provide more background.
	This carries over to the next meeting.

	Ch 20, ROUTE annotation for PATTERN
	Wolfgang highlighted his proposal. This carries over to the next meeting.

	Ch 21, REGION statement
	Wolfgang highlighted his proposal. This carries over to the next meeting.

	Ch 22, WIRE instantiation within arithmetic model
	Wolfgang highlighted his proposal. This carries over to the next meeting.