Minutes Verilog-AMS Mixed-Signal subcom conf call - 3 April 2008

Present:
- Boris Troyanovsky - Tiburon DA
- Patrick O'Halloran - Tiburon DA
- David Sharrit - Tiburon DA
- Marek Mierzwinski - Tiburon DA
- David Miller - Freescale
- Jonathan David
- Kevin Cameron - True Circuits
- Ken Kundert - Designer's Guide Consulting
- Top Lertpanyavit - Intel
- Marq Kole - NXP
I hope I captured the names of all present - my apologies if I missed
anyone.


Agenda:
- welcome
- scope
- list of mixed-signal items
- call for proposals


Minutes:
- Marq started by welcoming everyone on the call and continued by
explaining the objective and scope of the mixed-signal subcommitee (M/S
subcom) of the Verilog-AMS standardization committee.

The current committee is working on finishing the Verilog-AMS 2.3 standard
which is expected to be resolved in a few months. In the meantime the M/S
subcom will start to work on the next iteration by looking specifically to
mixed signal items that need to be solved in the Verilog-AMS standard. A
few weeks ago an invitation was sent out as well as a list of topics that
could be addressed in this subcom -- and that list already started off some
discussions.

- The scope of the M/S subcom is to work on the mixed-signal items and try
to resolve these within a limited timeframe. One reason is to disconnect
the general maintenance and improvement of the language from the merger
activities with SystemVerilog; the other is to reduce the time-to-standard
for these maintenance and improvement items. As a first stake-in-the-ground
we aim to have a first proposal for M/S-related changes in the standard in
one year's time.

A proposal was to release the results of the subcommittee in "dot"
standards rather than full standards, i.e. 2.3.1, 2.3.2, etc. This would
allow for a more incremental approach.

- Marq is collecting a list of mixed-signal items, from the Mantis database
as well as the list that has been sent out on March 20 on the Verilog-AMS
reflector as well as any other available sources. This list shall be posted
shortly. However we organise the communication the Mantis database should
remain the reference for any proposals we make for maintenance and
improvement items.

- For communication it was decided to rely less on conference calls and do
more using Web 2.0 means of ommunications. To this effect Kevin proposed to
use the Wiki at EDA.org as a general repository for discussion documents.
Details on how to apply for access to the Wiki shall be provided by Kevin.
Second, Ken offered to have a restricted area on the Designer's Guide Forum
available for discussions rather than through the Verilog-AMS reflector.
The Forum has possibilities that are more amenable to setting up
discussions and keeping the relevant data together than the Verilog-AMS
email reflector has. Ken will communicate how to access this restricted
area. For the moment we can keep a once-every-month conference call date
but if the web-based discussion instruments indeed work for us that
frequency may go down.

Patrick proposed to consider a face-to-face meeting at the BMAS workshop in
September this year. By then we should have a generally good idea of where
we're heading.

David Miller proposed to work first to on a document that would collect all
items that we will be working on in the M/S subcom and set a timeline for
agreeing on that document.  That appears to be a reasonable first step and
should help to reduce the number of last-minute changes that need to be
taken up as well.


Actions:
- Marq - post list of mixed-signal items for the M/S subcom
- Kevin - provide information on how to access and use the Verilog-AMS web
at the EDA.org wiki.
- Ken - provide information on how to access and use a restricted area on
the Designer's Guide Forum.


Relevant links:
- Designer's Guide Forum - http://www.designers-guide.org/Forum/
- Verilog-AMS wiki at EDA.org -
http://www.eda.org/twiki/bin/view.cgi/VerilogAMS/WebHome
- Mantis database - http://www.verilog.org/mantis/login_page.php


These minutes will also be posted on the Verilog-AMS wiki as soon as access
has been granted.


Best regards,
Marq
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