Ebook: Fundamentals and Standards in Hardware Description Languages

The second half of this century will remain as the era of proliferation of electronic computers. They did exist before, but they were mechanical. During next century they may perform other mutations to become optical or molecular or even biological. Actually, all these aspects are only fancy dresses put on mathematical machines. This was always recognized to be true in the domain of software, where "machine" or "high level" languages are more or less rigourous, but immaterial, variations of the universaly accepted mathematical language aimed at specifying elementary operations, functions, algorithms and processes. But even a mathematical machine needs a physical support, and this is what hardware is all about. The invention of hardware description languages (HDL's) in the early 60's, was an attempt to stay longer at an abstract level in the design process and to push the stage of physical implementation up to the moment when no more technology independant decisions can be taken. It was also an answer to the continuous, exponential growth of complexity of systems to be designed. This problem is common to hardware and software and may explain why the syntax of hardware description languages has followed, with a reasonable delay of ten years, the evolution of the programming languages: at the end of the 60's they were" Algol like" , a decade later "Pascal like" and now they are "C or ADA-like". They have also integrated the new concepts of advanced software specification languages.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Fundamentals of Hardware Description Languages and Declarative Languages....Pages 3-38
CONLAN : Presentation of Basic Principles, Applications and Relation to VHDL....Pages 39-78
Logic and Arithmetic in Hardware Description Languages....Pages 79-107
System Level Design....Pages 109-151
Front Matter....Pages 153-153
Formal proofs from HDL descriptions....Pages 155-193
High-Level Synthesis in a Production Environment : Methodology and Algorithms....Pages 195-230
Synthesis applications of VHDL....Pages 231-262
HDL-Driven Digital Simulation....Pages 263-280
Analog and Mixed-Level Simulation with Implications to VHDL....Pages 281-330
Rapid Development and Testing of Behavioral Models....Pages 331-356
Front Matter....Pages 357-357
An Introduction to VHDL....Pages 359-384
ELLA, a Language for the Design of Digital Systems....Pages 385-394
The Hardware Description Language DACAPO III....Pages 395-409
CASCADE....Pages 411-430
REGLAN....Pages 431-446
KARL and ABL....Pages 447-466

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Fundamentals of Hardware Description Languages and Declarative Languages....Pages 3-38
CONLAN : Presentation of Basic Principles, Applications and Relation to VHDL....Pages 39-78
Logic and Arithmetic in Hardware Description Languages....Pages 79-107
System Level Design....Pages 109-151
Front Matter....Pages 153-153
Formal proofs from HDL descriptions....Pages 155-193
High-Level Synthesis in a Production Environment : Methodology and Algorithms....Pages 195-230
Synthesis applications of VHDL....Pages 231-262
HDL-Driven Digital Simulation....Pages 263-280
Analog and Mixed-Level Simulation with Implications to VHDL....Pages 281-330
Rapid Development and Testing of Behavioral Models....Pages 331-356
Front Matter....Pages 357-357
An Introduction to VHDL....Pages 359-384
ELLA, a Language for the Design of Digital Systems....Pages 385-394
The Hardware Description Language DACAPO III....Pages 395-409
CASCADE....Pages 411-430
REGLAN....Pages 431-446
KARL and ABL....Pages 447-466
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