PISCATAWAY, N.J., USA, 9 November 2005 The
IEEE today announced that it has approved SystemVerilog,
IEEE Std 1800(TM)-2005, as a new standard and has
approved Verilog, IEEE Std 1364(TM)-2005, as a revision
to the popular Verilog hardware description language
(HDL). SystemVerilog extends the Verilog language,
the predominant language used for chip design, to
address` the growing complexity of electronic system
and semiconductor designs. SystemVerilog is a unified
language for hardware design, specification, and verification
that was developed within the IEEE Standard Association’s
Corporate Program. The revision to the Verilog language
standard resolves several ambiguities and corrects
minor errors.
The broad IEEE SystemVerilog 1800 standard raises
productivity for hardware design, specification, simulation
and validation, especially for large-gate-count, IP-based,
bus-intensive chips. It is based on the SystemVerilog
3.1a hardware description and verification language
(HDVL) from the Accellera standards organization,
which includes such features as advanced design modeling
capabilities, testbench constructs, verification methods
using assertion and testbench language, and a richer
coupling with other languages such as C/C++. This
unified standard gives the electronic design, semiconductor
and system design communities a way to make design,
simulation, validation and assertion-based verification
work flows more efficient. It also lets designers
use other languages in conjunction with Verilog, so
they can leverage existing designs and intellectual
property.
“IEEE 1800 enhances the Verilog HDL to keep
it at the cutting edge of the industry,” said
Johny Srouji, chair of the SystemVerilog 1800 Working
Group and Verilog 1364 Working Group. “It offers
a more powerful, integrated, concise design and verification
language, allowing engineers to deal with more complex
design configurations, such as deeper pipelines, greater
logic functionality and a higher abstract representation
of the design using fewer lines of register transfer
level code.”
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) has been
a primary source of electronic design automation standards
since the mid 1980s. The IEEE 1364 Verilog standard,
for instance, has been a common language for integrated
circuit development for more than a decade and has
sparked strong growth in this sector. IEEE 1800 SystemVerilog
standard was sponsored by the Design Automation Standards
Committee within the IEEE Computer Society and by
the IEEE-SA’s Corporate Advisory Group. Standards
which are created within the IEEE-SA Corporate Program
are developed by company-based working groups in which
each member company has one vote. This industry-oriented
program often allows for standards production in only
one to two years, depending on participant commitment
and the use of IEEE support services. The SystemVerilog
1800 working group included a large number of technical
members from electronic design and user companies
who dedicated their time and worked together very
hard to achieve this standard. The Corporate Program
was a significant factor in the rapid production of
SystemVerilog 1800.
“The IEEE 1800 standard was developed in a
very short period, twelve months, as a result of excellent
collaboration and contributions of all working group
members and underlying technical committees,”
said Chuck Adams, chair of the IEEE Standards Association
(IEEE-SA) Corporate Advisory Group (CAG). “Accellera
played a major and important role in enabling this
achievement, through the donation of Accellera SystemVerilog
3.1a, in addition to continuous and outstanding cooperation
with the IEEE 1800 group throughout the development
of this standard.”
Pricing and Availability The SystemVerilog IEEE Std
1800-2005 and Verilog IEEE Std 1364-2005 will be available
for purchase under the IEEE store, and can obtained
through IEEE Standards Online subscription, or purchase
according to published list price. For more information,
see: http://shop.ieee.org/ieeestore.
About the IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE-SA is a globally recognized standards-setting
body which develops consensus standards through an
open process that brings diverse parts of an industry
together. These standards set specifications and procedures
based on current scientific consensus. The IEEE-SA
has a portfolio of more than 870 completed standards
and more than 400 standards in development.For information
on IEEE-SA see: http://standards.ieee.org/.
About the IEEE
The IEEE has more than 375,000 members in approximately
150 countries. Through its members, the organization
is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace,
computers and telecommunications to biomedicine, electric
power and consumer electronics. The IEEE produces
nearly 30 percent of the world's literature in the
electrical and electronics engineering, computing
and control technology fields. This nonprofit organization
also sponsors or cosponsors more than 300 technical
conferences each year. Additional information about
the IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org.
IEEE 1364 and IEEE 1800 are trademarks of the IEEE.
All other names or product names mentioned above are
the trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
