During the just concluded DVCon Conference I met with Shishpal Rawat, Chairman of the newly named Accellera Systems Initiative. The merger between Accellera and OSCI was completed and this conference was the first important event under the new organization.

DVCon was a success, positioning the conference as one of the most important events for the EDA industry. The technical content of the program was first rate ,and the exhibitors were quite please by the results on the floor.

The Accellera Systems Initiative now has sixteen corporate members, ten of which are user companies. This is very impressive since it shows that the organization will be responsive to the needs of the design community, and not, as in many other such industry organization, on the choices of the EDA vendors.

In addition, Accellera counts 23 associate members, most of which, once again, are users, not vendors. With a total membership of 39 companies, Accellera has reinforced its leadership position in identifying, developing, and maintaining key standards for design, verification, and IP.

Its working groups are busy on four specific developments. A Unified Coverage Interoperability Standard that will allow the exchange of verification metrics among tools. UVM 2.0 is also being developed, as is a standard for SystemC configuration, Control, and Inspection (CCI).

Finally users can look forward to a specification of Verilog and SystemC Analog/Mixed-Signal language.

On the negative side, at least for me, is the resignation of Georgia Marszalek as the public relation professional for the consortium. Georgia has dedicated many years in support of HDLs development, definition and support and has been the PR person for Accellera from its inception. She will be missed.