Munich, TU Munich
March 12th, 2001, 14:00
Attendees: W.Grass, R.Hartenstein, N.Fristacky, N.Dutt, K.Müller-Glaser, K.-H.Diener, F.Rammig, F.Wagner, E.Villar, C.Delgado-Kloos, E.Aas, M.Robert, R.Reis, J.Mermet, R.Camposano.
Excused: M.Fujita, O.Karatsu, S.Johnson, R.Waxman,
G.Milne, M.Edwards, O.Koufopavlou, K.Choi, J.-Y.Jou, G.de Micheli, J.Darringer,
G.Hellestrand, D.Luckham, J.Damore, F.Brglez, D.Borrione, F.Anceau, S.Olcoz,
A.Pawlak, E.Cerny, D.Gale, L.Claesen, P.Subrahmanyam, A.Yamada, W. Rosenstiel,
P.Bakowski, L.M.Silveira, H.Eveking, P.Schwarz, M.Glesner, J.Willis, K.Antreich,
M.Imai, D.Sciuto, W.Nebel.
1. Agenda
The agenda was approved.
2. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting in Beijing have
been approved. It has been reported that new members from Asia could attend
the meeting: Kyoung Choi, from Korea, and Jing-Yang Jou, from Taiwan.
3. VLSI'2001
Michel Robert gave a report on the organization of VLSI-SoC, to be held in Montpellier in December 2001. The conference will be organized in conjunction with the Workshop on IP-Based Design, to be held in the following days in Grenoble and which is more oriented towards the industry. There will be two tracks, one on design , the other on CAD/CAT. Details on the financial organization have been given. 120 attendees are expected. A CD-ROM and low-cost proceedings will be distributed to the attendees. The best papers of VLSI-SoC and the Workshop on IP-Based Design will be later published on a book by Kluwer.
4. New members
Luis M. Silveira could not attend the meeting to present himself and sent apologies.
M. Srivas did not attend the meeting, with no information
from his side An hypothetical proposal of Mark Aagard has not been analyzed,
since there is no explicit request from him, just a message from Ed Clarke,
and the group decided that the procedure for accepting new members must
be followed.
5. SIG-CODES
M.Edwards could not attend the meeting, but Jean Mermet read his report on SIG-CODES. The report suggests to discontinue the SIG-CODES, because of very low activity.
The group approved the suggestion and will inform
this to IFIP. Franz Rammig reported on the low activity of the new SIG-ES
(SIG on Embedded Systems), which was created last October, but it is expected
that this SIG will start activities soon.
6. DIPES'2000
Franz Rammig reported on DIPES'2000, which was held
in Paderborn in last October. He reported a surplus of 3000 Euros. Books
with the proceedings are being now distributed by Kluwer to the authors.
The next edition of DIPES will be held in 2002 as a parallel track of the
IFIP World Congress in Montreal. DIPES will be organized from now on by
SIG-ES.
7. DATE
The meeting of the DATE sponsors has been scheduled to the same time as the meeting of WG 10.5, so that the IFIP representative to DATE could not attend that meeting.
Franz Rammig read a letter from J.Laprie, chair of TC 10, naming him to represent IFIP in front of DATE, but Franz did not receive any invitation to the DATE sponsors' meeting. Jean Mermet reported that he received the invitation. As an action item, it was decided that the WG should contact L.Eggermont, present chair of the DATE sponsors committee, to verify if he received the letter from Laprie and if there were any problems regarding the sponsorship of IFIP. Jean Mermet stated that it seems that DATE does not want IFIP co-sponsorship anymore, although IFIP was co-sponsor of EURO-DAC and should have the right to be co-sponsor of DATE. It was decided that Franz Rammig should leave the WG meeting and try to catch the DATE sponsors'meeting at the ICM convention center.
In the meantime Peter Marwedel has been elected chair
of the sponsors committee and , after a discussion with F. Rammig and L.
Eggermont, it was decided to seek an IFIP co-sponsorship with no financial
implications.
8. SIG-FM
Since Luc Claesen and M.Srivas were not present,
there was nothing to report on the proposal of creation of a SIG-FM (Formal
Methods). This topic will be discussed at the next meeting. Jean Mermet
reported on the low attendance of the FM community to WG 10.5 meetings.
He stated that the WG could discuss the possibility that this community
split from the WG 10.5, forming a new WG.
9. APChD'2001
Jean Mermet reported on APChD'2001, which was held
in Beijing during the last IFIP Worls Congress. Few people from Europe
and America attended, but the event is important for the Asian community.
APChD'2001 will be held in Australia. A preliminary call for papers has
been distributed at the meeting.
10. CHDL book series
Jean Mermet reported that a second edition of the
CHDL book series will contain best papers from HDLCon'2000, FDL'2000 and
APChDL'2000. Editors will be Peter Ashenden, Ralf Seepold and Jean Mermet.
A third edition must be planned with best papers from the 2001'editions
of these three conferences. Since costs are high, ECSI bought a number
of copies of the third edition and will sell them with 50% discount. The
final price will be U$ 65.00 instead of 130$.
11. Election of new officers
Flavio Wagner has been elected unanimously as new chair of the WG. He will ask M.Imai and N.Dutt to continue as vice-chairs. In order to have also a vice-chair from Europe, Flavio Wagner asked for candidates or indications. Eugenio Villar has been nominated. He accepted his nomination and has been elected unanimously.
From that point Flavio Wagner took over the coordination
of the meeting.
12. Report on the past mandate
Jean Mermet reported on his 3-years term as chair
of the WG. As he started as chair, the group had almost 90 members. There
was a significant renewal in the membership. Many members left the group
and some new members came. The group has 65 members now. Jean Mermet says
that this number is still too large. Too many members still do not react
to messages and do not show up in the meetings. He thinks that the scope
of the group is too broad. It becomes difficult to manage the group and
to organize activities. He suggests to split the group into two groups.
The brainstorming meeting in Munich two years ago was very fruitful. Some
ideas have been implemented. He thinks that the SIGs are the right place
for technical discussions, but they are not very active. Events that circulate
worldwide are no longer successful. The WG should support the emerging
of new events. The relationship to IFIP is fine, but using funds is not
very easy. Although the chair of TC 10 may agree on giving funds and signs
the needed documents, the money does not flow from IFIP headquarters. Much
more could be done on the WG web site.
13. Next meetings
There will be an informal meeting at DAC in Las Vegas in June, for gathering members that will attend the conference. Kind of "get-together coffee".
The next formal meeting will be in Brasilia, during the Symposium on Integrated Circuits and Systems Design, in September. An effort will be made to attract as many WG members to the symposium and the meeting as possible. The call for papers is still open until April 20th.
It will be verified with the organizing committee if WG members can be invited for tutorials and talks.
A technical discussion should take place during the meeting. For this purpose, some "hot" topic should be identified, members should contribute with prospective talks on that subject, and travel grants should be raised from IFIP to bring these members to Brasilia. Experts from other domains should also be invited.
Some subjects have been suggested: reconfigure-able computing, models of computation, heterogeneous systems (including mechanical, MEMS, analog). Such kind of discussion could bring new, innovative ideas and raise new technical activities and events.
A subsequent formal meeting has been scheduled for
Montpellier, in December, during VLSI-SoC'2001.
14. IFIP digital library
Ricardo Reis reported that the IFIP Council is discussing
the creation of an IFIP digital library and wants feedback from the WGs
on that matter. Members discussed that this library should help IFIP disseminate
information, and not simply earn money. For developing countries, fees
such as those for accessing ACM and IEEE digital libraries are too high.
A letter should be written to IFIP with regard to that question.
15. Future plans
Flavio Wagner briefly described some of his plans
and ideas as new chair. Each member of the WG should be committed to concrete
activities within the group. New members should expand the WG expertise
into new, innovative technical subjects and/or expand the WG into new geographical
regions. Aims and scope should be revised. Aims are too vague and should
be made more concrete. The group should discuss whether the scope should
be narrower or wider. A strategy paper should be written and propose concrete
activities that are consistent with our aims. The group should try to launch
new technical activities, such as events on new subjects, and show leadership.
The role of the SIGs should be re-discussed and their activities should
be enhanced. The web site should be enhanced, e.g. with information on
the topics of interest of the members.
16 Ajourn
At 17 pm the meeting is adjourned with warm thanks to Kurt Antreich who offered for the second time his very nice hospitality to the group