ESL hand-off: fact or EDA fiction?

Moving up in the level of abstraction is the holy grail of EDA. Each transition to the next level of abstraction allows 100x improvement in simulation speed and 100x improvement in design productivity. ESL is being promoted as the next level above RTL but is it really happening? (1) What is exactly ESL? What can be automated? (2) Is ESL a new design entry level? What are the benefits of the new entry level? (3 Why don't we see wide adoption by HW designers? (4) Did we find another way to gain productivity? Is ESL finally enabling IP reuse? (5) Are we going to see a transition from "RTL design/hand- off + Gate level sign-off to "ESL design/hand-off + RTL sign-off? What does ESL hand-off mean? (6) Can ESL address the design of convergent (multiple) applications? This panel will discuss if we really need the new ESL tools or current RTL-based tools are sufficient and debate if not ESL then what are the new methodologies/tools/languages required to move to the next level of productivity. Then, it will carry out more in-depth discussions on if the ESL hand-off the next step in design. (i) Is there a common formalism/abstraction that captures ESL? (ii) Is it possible?