Introduction
New methods open up a new era in the area of electronics system design. The growing complexity of programmable logic components is permitting the development of highly integrated hardware with more and more complex processes. In the past, application-specific development of performance-optimized systems with matching hardware and software called for high development expenditure, but programmable systems now offer remarkable scope for hardware design. An example of a new field of application is research on the implementation of changing hardware designs during the runtime. Increasingly rapid changes in technology require powerful and effective design concepts to minimize development time and expense. At the same time, designers must maintain architecture independence without sacrificing silicon efficiency.
The ongoing development of synthesis tools is raising the level of abstraction of electronic device descriptions. The designer can thus deal with more complex applications with a complete mastery of the technologies. Apart from explicit description of the physical level, the designer can work with a high order of abstraction. Abstraction means symbolic coding and therefore a language that can be transformed into a hardware structure by the use of synthesis tools.
VHDL was originally introduced as a hardware description language for the simulation of digital circuit designs. It is now used increasingly for design specifications that are employed as an input to synthesis tools. From the translation of these specifications physical systems can be built.
As has been practiced in software development for a long time, visual design tools are the most effective means of programming. The automatic generation of recurring program architectures achieves a maximum reduction in programming effort. The clearly arranged graphical representation of program architectures makes handling easier for the developer, even with designs of very high complexity, and the modular concept of the VHDL language suggests itself for use with a higher-order design environment, which optimizes the design process.