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VHDL has a rich and interesting history1
. But since knowing this history
is probably not going to help you write better VHDL code, it will only be
briefly mentioned here. Consulting other, lengthier texts or search engines
will provide more information for those who are interested. Regarding
the VHDL acronym, the V is short for yet another acronym: VHSIC
or Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit. The HDL stands for Hardware
Description Language. Clearly, the state of technical affairs these days has
done away with the need for nested acronyms. VHDL is a true computer
language with the accompanying set of syntax and usage rules. But, as
opposed to higher-level computer languages, VHDL is primarily used to
describe hardware. The tendency for most people familiar with a higherlevel computer language such as C or Java is to view VHDL as just another
computer language. This is not altogether a bad approach if such a view
facilitates the understanding and memorization of the language syntax and
structure. The common mistake made by someone with this approach is
to attempt to program in VHDL as they would program a higher-level
computer language. Higher-level computer languages are sequential in
nature; VHDL is not.
Free PDF available here: http://www.freerangefactory.org/dl/free_range_vhdl.pdf ×