Re: Feedback of feedback Re: New draft 1.15 of SCE-MI pipes section of SCE-MI 2 working document

From: John Stickley <john_stickley_at_.....>
Date: Tue Oct 10 2006 - 13:34:08 PDT
Shabtay,

I've created a revision 1.19 that has 2 fairly simple changes in response
to your feedback below (shown with change tracking since 1.18)

Please look this over to see if you're happy with it.

We still have a disconnect on your 4.3.3.2.2 comments. I think
this needs to be discussed at this week's meeting. I agree some
more clarification is needed here but let's make sure we all
have the same understanding of how it works before I add this.
Right now I don't think we do.

For now I've kept the terminology "automatic flush-on-eom". While I agree
it is slightly more verbose, I also think it is more precisely 
descriptive and
is worth the extra verbosity in the few places where it is mentioned.

-- johnS

Shabtay Matalon wrote:

>Hi John,
>
>I reviewed your latest revision 1.18 and here are my comments.
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: John Stickley [mailto:john_stickley@mentor.com]
>>Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 2:55 PM
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>Shabtay,
>>
>>I've incorporated most of your feedback into my document.
>>I'll send the updated revision 1.18 as a separate e-mail.
>>
>>Where I did not quite agree with your feedback or needed to add 
>>clarification, please read the specific feedback comments below. These 
>>were based on the marked up revision
>>1.17 that you sent to me.
>>
>>-- johns
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Your intro still contains "For variable length messaging and
>streaming extensions, a special facility is built over the DPI
>standard." I suggested deleting this as SCE-MI should not define that
>the facility should be implemented over DPI.
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.1 Last sentence
>>
>>I'm not sure I agree that the specification should impose this 
>>requirement. I would prefer to leave this statement out.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] OK. 
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.1.1.1 scemi_pipe_c_handle() function
>>
>>- Removed bytes_per_element, input_or_output
>>- Made separate accessors for them
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Great.
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.1.1.1 1st sentence
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] I think this is 4.1.1.2 
>  
>
>>I'm not sure I agree with your rewording here. It is too verbose and 
>>possibly unnecessary. My concern is that it might lead to more 
>>confusion on the part of the implementor. The interface declaration 
>>states quite precisely what is required by the implementor.
>>
>>Just as with function declarations, there is no need to use terms like 
>>"can be declared as". It either is or isn't.
>>
>>Whether it is a C-side function declaration or a function declaration 
>>in an HDL pipes interface, there is only one way to declare a function.
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>Once specified, it precisely tells the user how to use the function and
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>tells that implementor what interface he/she is required to provide.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] What I said is that "The HDL-side of the API can be declared
>using the SystemVerilog interface construct as follows. Given that pipes
>are built-in library functions, it is up to the implementation to decide
>how to declare these as long as their semantics are consistent with the
>enclosed."
>
>We need to convey that the SCE-MI 2 pipes does not mandate the use of SV
>interfaces by the implementation, but rather for it to be compatible
>with SV interfaces. We need to find the wording to convey that here. If
>this is too verbose, please propose alternative wording.
>
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.1.2 entire section
>>
>>- You suggested taking it out.
>>- I made it informational - may want to revisit this.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] OK. 
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.2 1st sentence
>>
>>Again, I think your use of the word 'illustrated' here leads to 
>>ambiguity.
>>
>>I reiterate what I said above that the interface declaration defines 
>>quite precisely what is required by the implementor.
>>
>>Now, if an implementation choses to use something other than an actual 
>>interface that's fine, so long as its use is syntax compatible. Which, 
>>as we discussed, should not be a problem here.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] This message needs to be captured in the spec.
>
>
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.3.3.2.2 1st sentence
>>
>>Hmmm. I don't think I agree with your comment.
>>I believe the wording is correct.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Let me suggest that you say "until all in-transit messages
>have been consumed by the consumer on that pipe". The wording "on that
>pipe" will tighten this.
>
>I also made a comment that that the following is incorrect: " The
>automatic flush-on-eom mode has no effect for non-blocking pipe
>operations. If a call is made to scemi_pipe_c_try_send() or the HDL
>try_send() function on pipes which were enabled for automatic
>flush-on-eom mode, no attempt is made to flush the pipe. Implicit
>flushing only pertains to blocking data send operations on pipes.
>
>I see no reason what automatic flush-on-eom mode setting has to do with
>whether you use blocking on non blocking calls.  
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.4.1.1 comment about "subject to its autoflush setting"
>>
>>What do you mean by this ?  I'm not sure what automatic flush-on-eom 
>>has to do with this statement.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] I think this is the same issue as above.
>
>Note: I proposed simplified terminology naming "Automatic flush-on-eom
>mode" as auto-flush mode. The earlier is way too verbose. Any comments? 
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.4.2 your comment about missing ok_to_put, ok_to_get events
>>
>>This was left out intentionally. This is because these are used mainly 
>>to support a generic threading interface in the C side which is not 
>>needed on the HDL side since the threading system is known.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Actually the motivation for the ok_to_put and ok_to_get events
>has nothing to do at this point with threading interface. It is added
>for ease of modeling on the HDL side.
>  
>
>>Also, it introduces additional complications as passing event 
>>references to/from functions, as far as I can tell, not possible in 
>>SystemVerilog.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Need to check on that as I think you should be able to define
>events as data members of an interface or module and access them
>hierarchically.
>  
>
>>----------------------------------------
>>4.7, 4.8 - your comment to move to appendix
>>
>>These are informational. Why do we need to move them to the appendix ?
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>In general does all informational text need to move to the appendix ?  
>>I see no harm in leaving all informational text where it is until such 
>>a time as we decide to remove it altogether.
>>    
>>
>[Shabtay] Given Brian's comment, let's leave these as informative.
>  
>
>
>  
>


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Received on Tue Oct 10 13:34:24 2006

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