Reconciling conflicting design-automation standards

There are four incompatible sets of guidelines for describing and communicating data for products ranging from components to systems. Representatives from the bodies governing the various standards have been trying to decide how to make the standards work together, a process they call harmonization. The standards involved are the Electronic Design Interchange Format (EDIF), the Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES), some standards developed by the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits (IPC), and the Very High-Speed IC Hardware Description Language (VHDL). A subcommittee has been set up, under the sponsorship of the American National Standards Institute, to bring about the harmonization. The tasks facing the subcommittee are examined.<>