IEEE Completes Revised IEEE 1800 Standard to Make Semiconductor Chip Design and Verification More Efficient

PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE, the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology, today announced completion of IEEE 1800-2009™, a revision to an existing IEEE standard. The new IEEE 1800 defines a single, comprehensive standard language that is designed to help boost the productivity of electronic system design and verification engineers and make possible broader and improved Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to more quickly bring complex system-on-chip (SOC) devices to market.

“IEEE 1800 has become the dominant global design and verification language standard to allow higher-capacity chips to be produced with greater efficiency”

“IEEE 1800 has been so successful because of the sustained attention of such a broad representation of the EDA, semiconductor and system-design communities throughout the standard’s lifecycle,” said Karen Pieper, chair of the IEEE P1800 SystemVerilog Working Group. “We encourage all stakeholders to continue to engage and build consensus through the IEEE to advance the ongoing innovations that our industry will require.”

An open meeting of the IEEE P1800 SystemVerilog Working Group will take place Feb. 26 in San Jose, Calif., in conjunction with DVCon 2010. Input gathered at this meeting will be used to establish the scope of the next revision of the IEEE 1800 standard. For more information on attending or participating remotely, please visit http://www.eda.org/sv-ieee1800/.

Continued increases in logic functionality, verification complexity and power issues resulting in a larger number of lines of Register Transfer Level (RTL) code characterize contemporary SOC designs. These trends also make multi-discipline verification significantly more complex. In addition to expanding the original IEEE 1800 SystemVerilog standard to meet these challenges and address the language’s increased usage, the newly revised standard ensures backward compatibility with the legacy IEEE 1364-2005 Verilog standard to improve ease of use. IEEE 1800 is a comprehensive standard that mergers into it the underlying IEEE 1364 Verilog language. IEEE 1800 also includes errata fixes and resolutions, general enhancements, and significant improvements and extensions to the SystemVerilog Assertion (SVA) language.

“IEEE 1800 has become the dominant global design and verification language standard to allow higher-capacity chips to be produced with greater efficiency,” said Dennis Brophy, chair of the IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group. “Broad corporate participation in the development of the standard under the corporate program has ensured IEEE 1800 addresses the pressing design and verification challenges of industry.”

For further information on IEEE 1800, please visit http://www.eda.org/sv-ieee1800/ or http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&isnumber=5354440&arnumber=5354441&punumber=5354133. The standard is available through the IEEE Shop in CD ($325 list price or $260 for IEEE members) or PDF ($260 list price or $210 for IEEE members).

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 400 standards under development. For information on the IEEE-SA, see: http://standards.ieee.org.

About the IEEE

IEEE is the world’s largest professional association advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity. Through its more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed nearly 900 active industry standards. The organization annually sponsors more than 850 conferences worldwide. Additional information about IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org.