VHDL Introduction

What is VHDL?
A hardware description language

Starting point: A VHDL model
Destination: A hardware chip


VHDLs History
Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC)
Program
Launched in 1980
Aggressive effort to advance state of the art
Object was to achieve significant gains in VLSI
technology
Need for common descriptive language
$17 Million for direct VHDL development
$16 Million for VHDL design tools
VHDLs History (Cont.)
In July 1983, a team of Intermetrics, IBM and Texas
Instruments were awarded a contract to develop VHDL
In August 1985, the final version of the language under
government contract was released: VHDL Version 7.2
In December 1987, VHDL became IEEE Standard 1076-
1987 and in 1988 an ANSI standard
In September 1993, VHDL was restandardized to clarify
and enhance the language
VHDL has been accepted as a Draft International
Standard by the IEC

Gajski and Kuhns Y Chart
Physical/Geometry
Structural
Behavioral
Processor
Hardware Modules
ALUs, Registers
Gates, FFs
Transistors
Systems
Algorithms
Register Transfer
Logic
Transfer Functions
Architectural
Algorithmic
Functional Block
Logic
Circuit
Rectangles
Cell, Module Plans
Floor Plans
Clusters
Physical Partitions
VHDL

VHDL is a Hardware Description Language.

Over the years, HDLs have evolved to help electronic designers
in the following tasks -

a) Describing digital systems
b) Modeling digital systems
c) Designing digital systems

The VHDL language can be used with several goals in mind -
i) To synthesize digital circuits
ii) To verify and validate digital designs
iii) To generate test vectors to test circuits
iv) To simulate circuits
VHDL as Integrated Language
VHDL can be regarded as an Integrated
amalgamation of following Languages.

Sequential Language+
Concurrent Language+
Net-List Language+
Timing Specification+
Waveform generation Language
VHDL Provides
Portability
Compatibility across vendors
Code reuse
Distributed design
Reliable design process
Minimized design time and cost
Additional Benefits of VHDL
Allows for various design methodologies
Provides technology independence
Describes a wide variety of digital hardware
Eases communication through standard language
Allows for better design management
Provides a flexible design language
Has given rise to derivative standards :
WAVES, VITAL, Analog VHDL
Putting It All Together
Generics Ports
Entity
Architecture

Architecture

Architecture

Concurrent
Statements
Process
Sequential Statements
Concurrent
Statements
Package
Inference
VHDL is a hardware description
language not a programming language!
Our aim is to synthesize VHDL models
into real hardware circuits
The synthesis tool will infer a hardware
architecture from the VHDL model
When writing a VHDL model always
think of the hardware inferred from it