Re: List of mixed-signal subjects

From: Kevin Cameron <Kevin.Cameron_at_.....>
Date: Thu Mar 20 2008 - 13:23:32 PDT
I had a look at the UPF stuff and was not particularly impressed, at 
best it's a methodology for driving synthesis. The aim of the AMS 
extensions is to get a proper description of the hardware post-synthesis 
so that the Verilog-AMS is a complete description and not dependent on 
external stuff like UPF, and to have it work with back-annotation so 
that you can verify the power grid and related effects.

Kev.

Bresticker, Shalom wrote:
> Some of the issues with specifying multiple power supplies and voltage
> domains have been dealt with recently in the context of digital design
> for low power, using the competing UPF and CPF formats.
>
> Shalom
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-verilog-ams@server.eda.org 
>> [mailto:owner-verilog-ams@server.eda.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Cameron
>> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:29 PM
>> To: verilog-ams
>> Cc: Marq Kole
>> Subject: Re: List of mixed-signal subjects
>>
>> Marq Kole wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> In response to a private question from Shalom for a more 
>>>       
>> specific list 
>>     
>>> of subjects I have collected the following items as 
>>>       
>> subjects to work 
>>     
>>> on in the mixed-signal subcommittee.
>>>
>>> - Supply sensitivity in connect modules - how to make 
>>>       
>> connect modules 
>>     
>>> connect to a particular net as a supply reference, and have the 
>>> connect modules automatically switch off at low supply. There are a 
>>> few other supply net related issues in the Mantis database.
>>>
>>>       
>> There isn't really a significant difference between a power 
>> supply and any other signal, the problem is that in Verilog 
>> (being a logic-design language dating back to single-supply 
>> chip days) there is no way to describe the connections.
>>
>> I suggested fix for the general problem of connecting 
>> implicit signals a while ago -
>>
>>   http://www.eda-stds.org/verilog-ams/hm/1941.html
>>
>> Note: the location of auto-inserted connect modules needs to 
>> be fixed too (see below).
>>
>>     
>>> - Discipline compatibility - can mixed-signal designs with multiple 
>>> supply domains be made correct by design by declaring disicplines 
>>> incompatible. Ken Kundert will make a proposal for this in 
>>>       
>> the LRM 2.3 
>>     
>>> Draft 3 but this needs to be extended to wreal at least; it may not 
>>> even be accepted given that there has been no open discussion on it.
>>>
>>>       
>> Specifying discipline (in)compatibility was in some of the 
>> original work (a decade + ago), and should be easy to add - I 
>> suggested it as a means to avoid (accidentally) connecting 
>> logic signals  across different voltage domains, so it's 
>> functionality that's applicable to digital designs (it's an 
>> elaboration-time check).
>>
>> Wreal should be deprecated. There is no reason you can't just 
>> use a signal flow wire instead of wreal, the missing 
>> functionality is the ability to assign flow/potential 
>> directly from a digital process. That would give better 
>> plug-and-play behavior too. A/D connect module insertion (and 
>> a solver) is only required if the signal in question has 
>> analog contributions.
>>
>>     
>>> - Elevate wreal or equivalent SV real to full signal status 
>>>       
>> - use of 
>>     
>>> Verilog-AMS at a higher abstraction level is currently 
>>>       
>> frustrated by 
>>     
>>> the limitations on wreal, while communication by means of 64-bit 
>>> busses for 1364 reals is not an acceptable alternative. 
>>>       
>> Also for this 
>>     
>>> item more issues are present in Mantis.
>>>
>>>       
>> This is part of a general problem in HDLs : no distinction is 
>> made between a signal representing a single physical wire or 
>> a bunch of wires. E.g. it would be nice to be able to have a 
>> pair of reals represent a complex value apply to a single 
>> physical wire, or an array of the same for representing a 
>> discrete spectrum, similarly it would be nice to bind two 
>> physical wires to a single logic value for differential signaling.
>>
>> I recommend leaving this problem to later SV committees to 
>> solve - i.e. 
>> it should be possible to bind any type to a single wire, 
>> making a special case for real/wreal is unnecessary.
>>
>>     
>>> - Access to analog variables - how can a safe access to analog 
>>> variables be created to make test bench creation simpler and making 
>>> test bench structures more powerfull, i.e. revealing more of the
>>> (analog) module internals. This has been discussed in the committee 
>>> but as no save resolution was found the LRM 2.3 adopts the position 
>>> that no such access is possible. As this is a very interesting and 
>>> useful feature I would like to revisit this in the mixed-signal 
>>> subcommittee.
>>>
>>>       
>> OK
>>
>>     
>>> - convergence of analog and digital functions - call analog 
>>>       
>> fuctions 
>>     
>>> from digital and vice versa.
>>>
>>>       
>> OK
>>
>>     
>>> - extension of connectrules block - support for local definition of 
>>> connectrules so subblocks in an SoC model can be selfcontained.
>>>
>>>       
>> Might be best left to scoping/packaging in SV.
>>
>> Note: the intention with connect-rules was that it should be 
>> possible to 
>> add any missing and/or extra rules to existing code as an 
>> afterthought - 
>> i.e. as a design grows you may encounter connections that the 
>> original 
>> block designer had not considered. As such the preference is 
>> not to have 
>> local definitions overriding global definitions, rather an 
>> extra global 
>> rule should be used to clarify ambiguities.
>>
>>     
>>> - stronger integration of analog and digital simulation 
>>>       
>> cycles - make 
>>     
>>> analog and digital continuously aware of when they will 
>>>       
>> process their 
>>     
>>> next event/timestep. This can lead to significant efficiency 
>>> improvements and prevent hard-to-trace errors in simulation.
>>>
>>>       
>> That's a bit vague.
>>
>>     
>>> - SV assertions in the analog context.
>>>
>>>       
>> Might be better to do another committee for assertions in analog - I 
>> know Jonathon David has some ideas in that area.
>>
>>     
>>> - Support for absolute delay in digital statements.
>>>
>>>       
>> I think that one just needs agreement (with SV) on syntax.
>>
>>     
>>> - Use of SV packages and/or global variables for collecting 
>>> user-defined functions and tasks to are to be used in 
>>>       
>> multiple modules.
>>     
>> OK
>>
>>     
>>> In addition, I will need to go through the current Mantis items 
>>> together with some of the feedback I already received from 
>>>       
>> some users 
>>     
>>> and outside contacts that I've been talking to.
>>>
>>>       
>> Another key item that needs to be addressed sooner rather 
>> than later is 
>> back-annotation. I made a simple proposal for supporting it 
>> in the past 
>> (2001):
>>
>>     
>> http://www.eda-stds.org/verilog-ams/htmlpages/tc-docs/issues/0
>> 007/fllwup-1.html
>>     
>> http://www.eda.org/verilog-ams/htmlpages/tc-docs/issues/misc/b
>> ack_ann.pdf
>>     http://www.verilog.org/mantis/view.php?id=866
>>
>> - as above, placement of connect module instances needs to be correct 
>> for it to work properly 
>> (http://www.eda-stds.org/verilog-ams/htmlpages/tc-docs/issues/
>> 0003/index.html) 
>> -
>>
>>     http://www.verilog.org/mantis/view.php?id=1765).
>>
>> Regards,
>> Kev.
>>
>>     
>>> Best regards,
>>> Marq
>>>
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Received on Thu Mar 20 13:26:04 2008

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