ALF conference call, Nov.11 1998 10AM-12noon
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Participants:

	Ted Elkind		Cadence
	Kevin Grotjohn		LSI Logic
	Sergei Sokolov		Sente
	Mike Andrews		Mentor Graphics
	Vassilios Gerousis	Motorola
	Wolfgang Roethig	NEC


General Discussion:

New ALF webpage is under construction on www.eda.org Will be announced when all pertinent docs are staged there.

A.I.	stage ALF 1.1 doc and alfsemantics.pdf on www.eda.org
	-- Mike Andrews

Newer version of SDF spec. for ALF/SDF crossreference needed.

A.I.	get official OVI version for SDF 3.0 for use in ALF committee
	-- Vassilios Gerousis

Review of ALF 1.1

#3.6.10

EXISTENCE_CONDITION and CHARACTERIZATION_CONDITION o.k.

Semantics of EXISTENCE_CLASS: inheritance of EXISTENCE_CONDITION. Class name identifies analysis modes mode-dependent timing analysis in DCL.

Semantics of CHARACTERIZATION_CLASS: inheritance of CHARACTERIZATION_CONDITION. Class name can be used to define characterization modes with user-defined names, e.g. timing_only, power_only etc. Need feedback from characterization tool providers on usefulness of this concept.

Kevin pointed out, that without these semantics, reference to any class could be used to inherit properties like EXISTENCE_CONDITION and CHARACTERIZATION_CONDITION.
Inheritence mechanism is transparent to application tool, like for C++ objects. This transparency should be respected in OLAWORX as well as in any other application interface to ALF source.

Note from editor:
In order to use only the inheritance mechanism without attaching semantic meaning to the keyword for reference itself, use

	CLASS = <name_of_referenced_class>;	// see ALF 1.0.6, ch.3.6.2

With feature enhancement #3.4.3, this can also be used for multiple classes

	CLASS { <list_of_names_of_referenced_classes> }

End of note

Kevin requested two other features:

1. standard recognition of a reference to a class by custom keyword with  vendor-specific semantics.

This could be accomplished by following feature:

Any keyword *_CLASS is reserved for the use of reference to a class.

A.I. Put this feature enhancement into the proposal -- Wolfgang

2. Bidirectional API to get
	- a list of all objects referencing a particular class,  given the name of the class.
	- a list of all classes referenced by an object,  given the name of the object.

This could be accomplished by the following feature:

Define standard OLA APIs, for instance
	OLAgetAllMembers(classname)
	OLAgetAllClasses(object)

A.I. Bring up this idea in the OLA meeting and develop OLAWORX spec for it
     -- all

#3.6.11

A lot of discussion evolved around the proposed concept to use CHARACTERIZATION_VECTOR as (eventually implicit) reference to a VECTOR inside a VECTOR as proposed, or to use CHARACTERIZATION_VECTOR as a declaration of an object itself.
Needs further discussion in the ALF meeting. Also the usefulness of identifying the VECTOR by its defining vector expression as opposed to an arbitrary name was discussed.

A.I. Write up the pro's and con's for ALF meeting -- Wolfgang

A.I. Write specification of expected OLAWORX behavior for class  reference -- Wolfgang

#3.6.12

approved. This introduces INDUCTANCE keyword with same scope-dependent usage as RESISTANCE, CAPACITANCE.

#3.6.13, #3.6.14

close to approval.
Proposal for NOISE_MARGIN and LOW HIGH is more general than the usual "vih" and "vil" in datasheet. Idea is to use it not only for digital logic but also for Digital-to-analog converters with multiple voltage levels etc. NOISE_MARGIN is conceptually different from absolute limit ranges for signal voltages. The latter can be modeled in ALF as follows: 	LIMIT { VOLTAGE {MAX = <number>; MIN = <number>; }

A.I. Put more explanation in the proposal -- Wolfgang

#3.6.15

only there, since potentially used in TLF4.0. TLF-ALF harmonization is declared goal from Cadence.

A.I. Contact appropriate person to get assessment on eventual use and mean