SCE-MI: Can some ports be left unbound?

Hi,

for a given testbench with a number of SCE-MI transactors, is there
a requirement that *all* SCE-MI ports be bound when running a test?
If no, then what is the implementation supposed to do with inactive,
unbound ports? It can't just leave them idle because the ports may
be inside transactors that will stop the clock while waiting for
a message on an in port or while sending a message on an out port.

Take the case of a transactor with an unbound in port, for instance.
If this transactor deasserts ReadyForCclock while it is waiting
for TransmitReady on the in port to be asserted, then the test would
deadlock unless the infrastructure would assert TransmitReady and
present some dummmy data on the Message outputs since it knows the
port is not bound. However, this appears to be a can of worms because
there is no way the infrastructure can know what a benign Message
value is. The issue is that although the message port is inactive,
there is no way at the SCE-MI level to indicate that the BFM should
be inactive as well.

Hmm, this leads me to conclude that all ports must be bound and
that transactors must implement an idle mechanism at the application
layer if it is desired to be able to leave transactors inactive in
certain tests. Was this the intent of he SCE-MI committee? I don't
recall a specific requirement that all ports be bound, but I may have
missed it/forgotten it. Let me know if there is such a thing. If
not, and if the committee believes it is a requirement, then I propose
we add a paragraph or sentence to that effect with a note explaining
why this requirement exists.

Thanks,
Per

-- 
Per Bojsen                                Email: <bojsen@zaiqtech.com>
Zaiq Technologies, Inc.                   WWW:   http://www.zaiqtech.com
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