Community Newsletter: May 2024

IN THIS ISSUE:

Message from the Chair

Standards, DVCon around the globe and more!

News from Accellera Working Groups

PSS 3.0 in Public Review
SystemC 3.0.0 Fully Compatible with IEEE 1666-2023
CDC Working Group DVCon U.S. 2024 Video Available

Accellera at the 61st Design Automation Conference

Luncheon focused on Portable Stimulus

Recent News

Shalom Bresticker Honored with Distinguished Service Award
Verilog-AMS 2023 Available for Download
IEEE 1800-2023 Available through GET Program

Recent Press Coverage

Semiconductor Engineering: “EDA Looks Beyond Chips”
SemiWiki: “Simulating the Whole Car with Multi-Domain Simulation”
Semiconductor Engineering: "Accellera Preps New Standard for Clock-Domain Crossing”

Upcoming Events

SystemC Fika May 30
DVCon Japan August 29
DVCon Taiwan September 10
DVCon India September 18-19
DVCon Europe October 15-16

Videos from DVCon Europe 2023 Available

SystemC Evolution Day October 17

IEEE Get Program Update

Message from the Chair

Lu Dai, Accellera Systems Initiative Chair This year’s DVCon U.S. witnessed an outstanding turnout, underscoring the growing interest and engagement in the advancement of design and verification standards and technology. With numerous DVCon events scheduled worldwide throughout the year, we encourage you to submit your proposals and help shape the future of our exciting industry.

Several Accellera standards have significant updates. The much-anticipated UVM 3.0 and SystemC 3.0.0 have been officially released, offering many new features and improvements. Additionally, the Portable Test and Stimulus (PSS) Draft Standard 3.0 has entered public review, inviting feedback from the community. Verilog-AMS 2023 also made its debut, reflecting ongoing advancements in mixed-signal design.

Various working groups have been diligently progressing on the development of their standards. The Clock Domain Crossing Working Group is set to provide an update at the upcoming DVCon India. The SystemVerilog-Mixed Signal Interface Working Group is on track for an end-of-year release, and the SystemC Synthesis Working Group is gaining momentum with new leadership.

The Federated Simulation Standard Proposed Working Group is in full swing, generating significant interest from industry stakeholders. Expect more updates from this dynamic group soon.

While Accellera continues to advance standards development, our community is also expanding. We are delighted to welcome our newest members, Ausdia and Microchip Technology.

As the 61st Design Automation Conference approaches, we invite you to attend our luncheon on Tuesday, June 25 focused on the PSS 3.0 standard. We hope to see you in San Francisco!

Sincerely,
Lu Dai, Accellera Systems Initiative Chair

News from Accellera Working Groups

Portable Test & Stimulus Standard 3.0 Draft Is Available for Public Review!

The latest version of the Portable Test and Stimulus Standard (PSS) adds many new features, corrects errors, clarifies aspects of the language and semantic definitions, and much more. The most substantial feature added is support for behavioral coverage, which allows the user to identify a set of actions and data combinations that need to be observed to exercise key functionality. Other new features include (numbers in parenthesis correspond to a section in the document):

String methods, including size() and find(), and the sub-string operator to extract a sub-string from a given string (7.6)
Support for collections of reference types (7.10)
Platform qualifiers on function prototype declarations (22.2)
Support for comments in target-template blocks (22.5)
Support for yielding control with cooperative multitasking (22.7.14)
Added an address space group to allow multiple address spaces to share common storage elements (24.9)
Defined mapping between PSS lists and SystemVerilog Queues (D.5.5)
Added Annex F to specify the formal semantics of behavioral coverage

The Public Review of the PSS 3.0 draft standard is open through July 5, 2024.

Download the PSS 3.0 draft standard.

Provide feedback, comments, and ask questions via the PSS Community Forum.

The SystemC 3.0.0 Class Library Is Now Fully Compatible with the IEEE 1666-2023 Language Reference Manual

SystemC Following input from the public review held late last year, the SystemC Working Group has updated SystemC 3.0.0 to be fully compatible with IEEE 1666-2023. Highlights of the updated reference implementation include:

Based on C++17 (ISO/IEC 14882:2017)
Introduction of simulation stage callbacks
Possibility to suspend/unsuspend the simulation kernel to enable interaction with external threads
Improved simulation performance for big-integer data types
Time resolution down to yoctoseconds
Many minor enhancements to improve SystemC modeling style and usage

Download SystemC 3.0.0. Available through the Accellera-sponsored IEEE GET Program, you can download the IEEE 1666-2023 Language Reference Manual fee-free.

For more information on SystemC 3.0.0, including a list of what’s new, you can view the release notes.

For more information on the SystemC standard, including SystemC events and videos, visit the SystemC Community Portal.

Video from the Clock Domain Crossing Workshop at DVCon U.S. Now Available

The Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Working Group workshop, “Hierarchical CDC and RDC Closure with Standard Abstract Models” presented at DVCon U.S. 2024 can now be viewed on-demand. Diving into proven CDC and reset domain crossing (RDC) schemes, the workshop addressed critical verification challenges alongside potential solutions. Presenters discussed hierarchical CDC/RDC methodology, tradeoffs when incorporating IP’s from multiple sources, and the challenges integrating abstracts from multiple vendors into a cohesive design. View the video to gain insight into the upcoming CDC standard and how it will address many of the current challenges.

View the CDC DVCon U.S. 2024 video.

For more information on the CDC Working Group, visit the working group page.

Accellera-sponsored Luncheon at the 61st Design Automation Conference (DAC)

Tuesday, June 25
Noon-1:30
Room 3016, Moscone West

Topic: Portable Stimulus

We hope you’ll join us at DAC in San Francisco for an engaging luncheon sponsored by Accellera that will focus on the recently released Portable Test and Stimulus (PSS) Draft Standard 3.0. The draft standard, currently available for public review, revolutionizes verification strategies by empowering user companies to select the best tools from competing vendors. Members of the working group will introduce the new features that have been incorporated into the standard, most notably support for behavioral coverage. With the public review period open through July 5, 2024, attendees will have an opportunity to provide feedback and comments via Accellera’s online PSS Community Forum. There will also be ample time for interactive Q&A following the presentation.

The Accellera-sponsored luncheon is free to DAC attendees, but registration is required.

Moderator:
Tom Fitzpatrick, Siemens EDA, Strategic Verification Architect; Portable Stimulus Working Group Vice Chair

Panelists:

Dave Kelf, Breker, CEO
Sergey Khaikin, Cadence, Product Engineering Architect
Santosh Kumar, Qualcomm, Senior Engineering Manager
Hillel Miller, Synopsys Sr. Architect
Freddy Nunez, Agnisys, Application Engineer

Recent News from Accellera

Accellera Honors Shalom Bresticker with First Distinguished Service Award

Shalom Bresticker Accepts Accellera's First Distinguished Service Award

Shalom Bresticker, a longtime friend and contributor to Accellera standards efforts, is honored with Accellera’s first Distinguished Service Award. The award was presented during the Accellera-sponsored luncheon at DVCon U.S. 2024.

“Shalom has been an invaluable contributor to the development of Accellera standards,” stated Lu Dai, Accellera Chair. “His breadth of knowledge and expertise dissecting the crucial elements so that they are clear is incredibly beneficial to users of the standards. He painstakingly reviews hundreds of pages, fixing errors along the way. We have benefited from his skills for years and are grateful for his contributions to Accellera. We are thrilled to bestow Accellera’s first Distinguished Service Award to Shalom.”

Mr. Bresticker has been an electronics engineer for 30 years and more recently a technical editor for nearly a decade. He is currently helping to document Accellera’s UVM-MS standard. He recently completed documentation for Accellera’s Portable Stimulus standard and the IEEE’s Std 1800-2023 SystemVerilog Language Reference Manual. He was awarded the Accellera Technical Excellence Award in 2010 for his contributions to the Verilog, SystemVerilog, Verilog-AMS, and OVL standards.

View a video of Shalom’s acceptance of the award.

Verilog-AMS 2023 Standard Available for Download

Accellera recently released the Verilog-AMS 2023 standard for download. The updated standard introduces enhancements to analog constructs, along with clarifications for existing constructs.

Updates to the Verilog-AMS 2023 standard include:

Dynamic tolerance to event control statements
Jump statements for analog constructs
Numerous clarifications such as interrupted transitions, context, and named events
Additional $receiver_count() function for connect modules
Compiler directives for UVM-MS

Verilog-AMS benefits users by allowing them to describe and simulate analog and mixed-signal designs using a top-level design methodology as well as the traditional bottom-up approaches. The standard supports analog and mixed-signal designs at three levels: mixed transistor/gate-RTL/behavioral circuit, transistor/gate-RTL/behavioral, and transistor/gate. Moreover, Verilog-AMS provides powerful structural and behavioral modeling capabilities for systems in which the effects of, and interactions among, different disciplines such as electrical, mechanical, and thermal are important.

Download Verilog-AMS 2023.

For more information about the Verilog-AMS 2023 Standard, visit the SystemVerilog-AMS Working Group page.

IEEE 1800-2023 Available through GET Program

The recently published IEEE Std. 1800™‑2023 Standard for SystemVerilog is now available for download without charge, courtesy of Accellera as part of the IEEE GET Program.

IEEE Std. 1800™-2023 includes support for modeling hardware at the behavioral, register transfer (RTL), and gate abstractions, and for writing testbenches using coverage, assertions, object-oriented programming, and constrained random verification. The standard also provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to foreign programming languages. The SystemVerilog language is used in the design and verification of over 75% of electronic designs across the industry.

“The 2023 revision builds on the long history of SystemVerilog and the expertise of the many volunteers who have worked on the various versions of the standard for more than 20 years,” stated Tom Fitzpatrick, IEEE 1800™ Working Group Chair. “This version includes several enhancements to extend the capabilities of the language or to formalize features previously implemented as ad hoc additions in some tools. It also fixes several errata ranging from typographical errors to inconsistencies in previous versions and clarifies areas where previous versions were ambiguous.”

For more information about IEEE Std. 1800™-2023, visit the IEEE Standards Association page.

To download the standard, visit the Accellera's Available IEC/IEEE Standards page.

Recent Press Coverage

Ed Sperling, Semiconductor Engineering, looks at the potential for tremendous expansion for EDA, potentially the biggest bonanza the industry has ever seen, in a recent article, “EDA Looks Beyond Chips.” For input, he talked with Martin Barnasconi and Mark Burton, Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, of Accellera’s Federated Simulation Standard Proposed Working Group.
During DVCon U.S. 2024, Bernard Murphy sat down with members of the Federated Simulation Standard Proposed Working Group and Ford Motor Company for SemiWiki’s “Simulating the Whole Car with Multi-Domain Simulation.” It is a fascinating, thought-provoking read.
Brian Baily, Semiconductor Engineering, interviews stakeholders for a recent article, “Accellera Preps New Standard for Clock-Domain Crossing.” Dammy Olopade, Accellera’s CDC Working Group Chair, discusses the upcoming standard and the goals for streamlining the flow between IP vendors, integrators, and tool suppliers.

Upcoming Events

Join Us for Our Next SystemC Fika

You are invited to attend the upcoming SystemC Evolution Fika, a free virtual workshop to be held on May 30, 2024. The workshops are referred to as Fikas to honor the Swedish tradition of sharing a coffee, slowing down a bit, and talking about things that we care about – in this case, SystemC.

The agenda for the afternoon includes:

16:30 - 17:00: Updates from SystemC working groups presented by Martin Barnasconi, Accellera Technical Committee Chair
17:00 - 17:30: SystemC Synthesis Working Group update presented by Fred Doucet, SystemC Synthesis Working Group Chair
17:30 - 18:00: Q&A and open discussion

For more information and to register, visit here.

To view presentations from past Fikas, as well as SystemC Evolution Day, visit the SystemC events page.

DVCon Japan 2024

The second in-person DVCon Japan will be held August 29 at TKP Garden City Premium, Shinagawa Tokyo. The Call for Contributions is open through May 31.

Welcome Message from DVCon Japan 2024 General Chair

Dear friends,

DVCon (Design and Verification Conference) is a conference mainly sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative. DVCon focuses on solving problems in a wide range of areas such as logic design, architecture study, functional verification, HW/SW co-verification, analog simulation, functional safety compliance, security verification, and the application of AI to development flows in semiconductors and systems. DVCon is the premier conference for learning and discussing best practices in the application of IEEE and Accellera standard languages, formats, and methodologies.

DVCon has been held in the U.S. for more than 30 years and has been held in Japan since 2022, with online and on-demand delivery in 2022 and in-person in 2023. We were able to offer a diverse and in-depth program with a variety of paper presentations, tutorial sessions, and exhibits from sponsors and exhibitors. We would like to thank all the audiences, presenters, sponsors, and all those involved.

DVCon Japan 2024 will be held at a venue that is only a three-minute walk from the Takanawa Exit of Shinagawa Station. The morning sessions will consist of general sessions and panel discussions, and the afternoon will be technical sessions including many paper presentations and tutorials. DVCon is a forum for sharing and discussing the latest information in a wide variety of areas including functional verification strategies, SystemVerilog, UVM, UPF, SystemC, PSS, formal verification methodologies, HLS, AMS, IP-XACT, and more, and discussion in a wide variety of fields. It is also a fantastic opportunity to meet and mingle with other attendees, presenters and attendees, sponsors, and Accellera representatives.

We encourage designers, engineers, and managers to attend. We look forward to seeing you at DVCon Japan. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Gold and Silver sponsors and supporters for their support of the event, as well as the Information Processing Society of Japan and IEEE CEDA AJJC for their sponsorship.

Genichi Tanaka, DVCon Japan 2023 General Chair

DVCon Taiwan 2024

The second DVCon Taiwan will be held September 10th at Amazing Hall, Hsinchu, Taiwan. See the call for sponsors and Design Verification Contest!

Welcome Message from DVCon Taiwan 2024 General Chair

On behalf of the DVCon Taiwan 2024 steering committee, it is my honor to welcome you all to the second edition of the Design and Verification Conference and Exhibition in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

The first DVCon Taiwan was held successfully in 2023. DVCon Taiwan 2024 will be held on September 10 at Amazing Hall, with RISC-V Taipei Day on September 11. Registration for DVCon Taiwan can be used to attend RISC-V Taipei Day. There is also a new Design Verification Contest this year for your participation. We encourage students, professors, engineers, and managers to attend.

We're thrilled to have you join us for what promises to be an exciting and productive conference. We've assembled a lineup of renowned speakers, insightful presentations, and engaging exhibits to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.

We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to connect with attendees, exchange ideas, and gain valuable insights. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors and supporters for their support of the event, as well as Taiwan IC Design Society for their sponsorship.

We look forward to a successful DVCon Taiwan 2024!

Penny Yang, DVCon Taiwan 2024 General Chair

For more information on DVCon Taiwan, visit dvcontaiwan.org. To view the proceedings from DVCon Taiwan 2023, visit here.

DVCon India 2024

The ninth annual DVCon India will be held September 18-19 in Bangalore.

Welcome Message from DVCon India General Chair 2024

On behalf of the DVCon India 2024 steering committee, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the ninth edition of the Design and Verification Conference in India. The theme of this year’s conference is “Architecture to Analytics (A2A).”

We want to carry forward the momentum, excitement and the enthusiasm witnessed during last year’s edition into DVCon India 2024. The conference would be following the contemporary Indian version of a two-day conference with in-depth technical content spreading across both days and will have an Awards Night, which saw an amazing response last year.

On behalf of the DVCon India 2024 steering committee, it gives me immense pleasure to extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you to the ninth edition of the Design and Verification Conference in India. Set to unfold the 18th-19th of September in the vibrant city of Bangalore, India, this conference promises to be a pinnacle of innovation, collaboration, and insight.

As we embark on this journey, we are fueled by the electrifying momentum, the techno-genius excitement and the enthusiasm that characterized last year’s edition of DVCon India. Our goal for DVCon India 2024 is clear: to build upon the successes of the past and propel the conference to even greater heights.

This year, our focus is laser-sharp: we aim to demystify the essence of DVCon. While some may perceive it solely as a Digital Verification Conference, DVCon embodies much more-it encapsulates the entire spectrum of Design and Verification, spanning from Architecture and Design to Post Silicon Validation.

To ensure that this message resonates loud and clear across our community, we have formed dedicated focus groups in pivotal areas:

System and IP level modelling, Virtual Prototyping & ESL
Architecture and Design
RISC-V and its ecosystem
Analog and Mixed-Signal Design and Verification and
Post Silicon Validation.

Through these specialized groups, we seek to foster deeper understanding, facilitate meaningful dialogue, and foster inclusive participation.

Furthermore, in our relentless pursuit of excellence, we are expanding our Technical Program Committee and implementing structural enhancements to optimize the participant experience. These changes underscore our commitment to delivering value-driven content and enriching interactions.

We extend an open invitation to the entire technical fraternity to actively engage, collaborate and share insights at DVCon India 2024. Your collective expertise, passion, and dedication are instrumental in shaping the success of this conference, and we eagerly anticipate your invaluable contributions.

Together, let us ignite the spirit of Designnovation, celebrate the power of collaboration and chart a path towards a future defined by excellence.

Welcome to DVCon India 2024—a platform where ideas converge, innovations thrive, and possibilities abound.

Here’s to a resounding success!

Pradeep Salla, DVCon India 2024 General Chair

For more information on DVCon India and to view the latest updates, visit the conference website.

DVCon Europe 2024

DVCon Europe returns for its 11th edition October 15-16 at the Holiday Inn, Munich City Center, in Munich, Germany. It is the leading European event covering the application of languages, tools and IP for the design and verification of electronic systems and ICs. A notable addition to the program since last year is the Research Track, featuring authors from universities and research institutes presenting innovative research papers. Selected papers from DVCon are published in academic journals following the conference. The Call for Research Papers is open through July 1. For more information or to submit a proposal, visit here.

Registration is open and advance rates are available through September 13. For the latest updates on DVCon Europe, including advance program availability and registration information, visit the conference website.

Videos from DVCon Europe 2023 are available on-demand here. Proceedings from past conferences can also be viewed here.

SystemC Evolution Day 2024

The ninth SystemC Evolution Day will be held October 17 following DVCon Europe. It is a full-day technical workshop on the evolution of SystemC standards to advance the SystemC ecosystem. In several in-depth sessions, selected current and future standardization topics around SystemC will be discussed to accelerate their progress for inclusion in Accellera/IEEE standards.

SystemC Evolution Day is intended as a lean, user-centric, hands-on forum bringing together experts from the SystemC user community and the Accellera working groups to advance SystemC standards.

The Call for Contributions for SystemC Evolution Day is open through August 1. For more information on suggested topics, visit here. Please submit proposals via email to systemc-evolution-day@lists.accellera.org.

IEEE Get Program Update

Since its inception, the Accellera-sponsored IEEE Get Program has resulted in over 187,000 downloads. The IEEE Get Program provides no cost access of electronic design and verification standards to engineers and chip designers worldwide. For more information and to view the standards available for download, visit the Available IEC/IEEE Standards page on the Accellera website.