IEEE 1647-2008 standard update brings greater interoperability Andrew Piziali Chairman, IEEE 1647 e Verification Language Working Group An Interview conducted by Stylianos Diamantidis Verification Zone Moderator, CDNusers.org IEEE continues to update the e programming language standard as tool vendors add functionality. The 1647-2008 standard will include features added by Cadence since the prior standard was issued. Our cdnusers Verification forum moderator, Stylianos Diamantidis interviewed Andrew Piziali, chairman of the IEEE 1647 e Verification Language Working Group, to learn more about this next standard update. Stylianos: Why was the IEEE 1647 Working Group formed and what are its objectives? Andrew: The e Functional Verification Language Working Group (eWG) was formed to define a standard for the e programming language. The working group is sponsored by the IEEE Design Automation Standards Committee (DASC), a body of the IEEE Computer Society focused on electronic design automation standards. All standards related activity in the IEEE is governed by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE/SA). The purpose of the e language standard is to define a common syntax and semantics that all commercial and in-house tools developers can adhere to, ensuring tool interoperability. The working group members represent e language users and developers in the semiconductor industry, tool providers in EDA, design verification consulting services firms, verification IP developers, and those from academia. All geographic regions of the world are represented. Stylianos: Could you provide a short history of IEEE 1647 activities to date? Andrew: The DASC formed the Verification Language Study Group (VLSG) to scope and direct the standardization process. This effort resulted in a Project Authorization Request (PAR) that was approved by the DASC board on April 10, 2003 and by the IEEE Standards Board on June 12, 2003. The 1647-2006 standard passed a peer review ballot on October 28, 2005, passed RevCom and was approved by the standards board on March 30, 2006. The standard was published in September 2006. A revision PAR was filed and approved by NesCom July 31, 2006. Stylianos: What is the current direction of the eWG? How it is going to empower verification engineers going forward? Andrew: The working group is currently developing a 1647-2008 draft standard that incorporates language features developed since the 2006 language reference manual was published. These include constant fields, encapsulation, messaging, method ports, name spaces, reflection and sequences. The 2008 language update will allow verification engineers to develop more efficient and robust verification environments that interoperate with one another, adhering to the e Reuse Methodology (eRM). As with other industry standards, commercial e vendors often introduce language extensions in response to customer demands. As these extensions become widely adopted, vendors and customers push to standardize these extensions to ensure portability of environments between tools and interoperability of data. The current 1647-2006 standard precisely differs from the language definition supported by Cadence tools in those features we are currently adopting. In other words, the Cadence toolset currently supports a superset of 1647-2006. This implementation and the standard will conform to one another at the time the 1647-2008 standard is approved (assuming Cadence does not introduce additional language changes between now and then). Stylianos: There is a lot of discussion in the industry around verification languages like Vera or IEEE 1800 SystemVerilog. What is your viewpoint on these discussions and how, if at all, do they relate to your work on IEEE 1647? Andrew: My perspective on these discussions is that you can implement a verification environment in anything from assembly language to C to SystemVerilog. However, if you want to implement an environment that performs the three aspects of verification—stimulus generation, response checking and coverage measurement—with the least amount of effort, you ought to use e. Stylianos: What is your message to e users out there? How can people become more involved with the eWG? Andrew: The 1647 e Language Working Group was created to put the future of the e language in the hands of the e users. It is your responsibility to contribute to the working group by joining, joining DASC, attending the monthly working group meeting and reviewing draft documents. We need your guidance to ensure e meets your needs in the 21st century. Summary About the author Andrew Piziali is the chairman of the IEEE 1647 e Verification Language Working Group. He is an industry veteran design verification engineer with 23 years experience verifying mainframes, supercomputers and microprocessors with StorageTek, Amdahl, Evans and Sutherland, Convex Computer, Cyrix, Texas Instruments, Transmeta, Verisity and Cadence. Having an avid interest in coverage-driven verification, in 2004 he authored the book Functional Verification Coverage Measurement and Analysis. His new book, co-authored with Grant Martin and Brian Bailey, ESL Design and Verification, was published this spring. Andrew is now an independent consultant. Stylianos Diamantidis is a founder of Globetech Solutions, a premier provider of design verification and silicon test IP based solutions, where he serves as Managing Director and CTO. With over 10 years of experience in design verification, he is responsible for driving IP product strategy, engineering and consulting services. Prior to Globetech, Stylianos managed system-level diagnostic software development at Silicon Graphics Inc. He has held engineering positions in design verification, test and diagnosis. Stylianos holds a B.Eng in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Ratings   This content has been rated 5 out of 5 by other users   Comments