[myhdl-list] Re: Interfaces to Proprietary Tools

[Jan D. <ja...@ja...>]

David MacQuigg wrote:
> 
> On Dec 10th you wrote:
> 
> I ordered many modelsim licenses in a previous life :-( but
>  currently I have no access to modelsim. So I wonder if anyone
>  out there can help.
> 
> 
> At 05:59 PM 1/11/2005 +0100, you wrote:
> 
>> ... I believe demonstrated links with
>> commercial simulators are required to raise the awareness about MyHDL
>> as a viable commercial application.
> 
> 
> I was disappointed to see no response.  I believe this is due to the 
> tight restrictions vendors put on their proprietary tools.  For example, 
> I had difficulty getting access to the Cadence tools just to teach a 
> course at U of A.  Big companies are the most difficult.  Not only are 
> they more bureaucratic, but they may also consider use of their tools in 
> an open-source environment ( even with a fully paid license ) to be a 
> threat to their proprietary environments.  They have to weigh what they 
> gain by forcing customers to purchase their environments along with 
> their simulators, against what they lose by not allowing their 
> simulators to be used in competitive environments.
> 
> Have you tried contacting any of the simulator vendors directly?  I 
> would think that any but the biggest would see a net benefit in allowing 
> their simulator to be used with MyHDL.  I would think Cadence would see 
> a net gain in encouraging the use of NCSIM with other environments.

I haven't contacted them, because I am very sceptical, for the reasons you
list and from my own experience. The only really productive collaboration I
had with an EDA vendor in my previous design services company, was in
the early 90s with Synopsys, when they were still a small company. That
changed quickly as soon as they became wildly successful :-(

At one time we had a simple question for modelsim, which is still
relevant today (e.g. for MyHDL): whether it was permitted to open-source
a c module written using their proprietary procedural interface to their
VHDL simulator. We were a small company, but we did have 10+ modelsim
licenses. However, they simply never bothered to answer, no matter how
many times we insisted. (If anyone knows the answer, please tell me.
Note that I assume that there is no similar issue with the Verilog VPI,
as that is a standard. A similar standard for VHDL was once in the
making, but I don't know its status.)

> An alternative to working directly with the simulator vendor might be to 
> go to a big customer of that vendor, and show them they will benefit 
> from using MyHDL with the licensed simulators they already have.  They 
> will have the clout with the vendor to insist on cooperation.

Note that we wouldn't even need any technical cooperation, possibly
only on legal matters (see above, in the case of proprietary interfaces.)
This is the way I can see it happen. In fact, I'm making some progress
and there is a chance that I will get access to modelsim Verilog and
VHDL through an enlightened customer.

Regards, Jan

-- 
Jan Decaluwe - Resources bvba - http://jandecaluwe.com
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