xst synthesis with attributes failure

I have the following code which errors in 8.1.3 sw :

the error is something like ..actual value associated with a generic must be a globally static..

coef_2_rams : for i in 0 to 17 generate -- bit attribute RAM_INIT of inst : label is coef_init_2(i); begin inst: RAMD_OPREG generic map ( RAM_INIT => inst'RAM_INIT ) port map ( WADDR(3 downto 2) => "00", WADDR(1 downto 0) => etc

this is the logic being instantiated :

a_core : if true generate attribute INIT of ramd : label is RAM_INIT; begin ramd : RAM16X1D generic map ( INIT => str2suv(ramd'INIT) WADDR(2), a3 => WADDR(3),

str2suv is a function to convert a string to a logic_vector. This works if I do INIT => str2suv(RAM_INIT)

The problem looks to be the ramd'INIT I think.

The reason for doing this is to get a synthesis attibute and a generic for simulation without the error prone typing the value twice. The code compiles under Mentor Precision - and needs to keep doing so. Any ideas ?

The only solution I can think of it to have both :

attribute RAM_INIT of inst : label is coef_init_2(i)

RAM_INIT => coef_init_2(i)

Thanks for any ideas - and if XST people are reading this, any idea when this feature will be included ?? I have a very large number of these to change otherwise ...

/MikeJ