As many know, Accellera and OSCI are in the process of merging. The work on the merger, announced in June, should be completed by the end of the year. Concluding legal matters takes almost as long as developing a standard. Through all of the complexities that the representatives of the two organizations are dealing with, one stands out for its negativity. The desire, by some of the people involved, to develop a new name for the resulting organization. What is proposed is truly bad business practice.

This is not the first merger for Accellera. A couple of years ago the SPIRIT Consortium and Accellera merged. The new organization, much stronger both in the area of design and verification and in IP development and certification, has since then been very active and successful in pursuing the goal of both original partners. No one at the time suggested that Accellera SPIRIT or Spirit Accellera would be a suitable name. The reason is simple: people know Accellera, know how to find it on the web and know that the work on IP is going on even without a name change.

Good Will is one of the most precious assets of an organization. Were this not the case, companies would not bother to register names, or pay for copyrights and trademarks. A unique identity in an industry or a market is a requirement for success. And it is undisputable that Accellera has an identity that is well recognized in our industry. So why destroy it? Is it for the sake of a few OSCI individuals who are not too thrilled by the merger?

The proposed new name "Accellera System Initiative" makes no sense what-so-ever.

To begin with Accellera has been active in the "system" space since its inception. So, contrary to the SPIRIT merger that expanded the role of the organization to be more directly involved in IP, the merger with OSCI does not expand the focus of Accellera. Bringing OSCI into the fold allows for a greater coordination in the area of SystemC and C/C++ standard activities, I agree. But Accellera is already very active in developing standards and methods that have direct impact on how SystemC and C based design is growing. OSCI eventually would have to adapt since its focus is too narrow in the face of rapidly expanding system level design. SystemC, after all is diminishing in importance as more and more tools accept bigger and bigger subsets of C++.

Thus adding the word "system" to the Accellera name is not only superfluous, it is in fact a misrepresentation. Accellera is much more than a system organization and it deals with issues that are much larger than a single language use.

Accellera is also not an "initiative", while OSCI, as its names clearly states, is. An initiative is focused on one goal, just as OSCI is focused on promoting the use of SystemC. Accellera has a wide range of Working Groups spanning practically the entire design flow, from system to process information for circuit optimization. If one must use the word "initiative" it should at least be it plural!

What is even more deprecable is the internal abbreviation that I am told is being used for the new name: "ASI". This three letter acronym is widely used by a number of organizations in many industries, thus it has no proper meaning by itself. A Google search for "ASI" would not yield Accellera, in the first page of the search, I am sure.

I am also sure that no one from Accellera is thinking of re-branding the SystemC Users Group, the most active part of OSCI. This group, in fact, is the major contribution that OSCI will make to Accellera, since the latter does not yet have any activity similar to it. So let's get over parochial concerns that will only work to diminish the visibility of the remaining organization. OSCI, after all, should not be a Trojan horse.