INTRODUCTION TO

VHDL
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VHDL
VHDL is a product of VHSIC program of US
Department of Defense (DoD).
VHDL

V
Very High Speed Integrated Circuit
H
Hardware
D
Description
L
Language
VHDL is an industry standard HDL for the
Description, Modeling and Synthesis of digital
circuits and systems.
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Origin of VHDL
Initiated by US Governments VHSIC
Program in 1981.
IBM, TI and Intermetrics started the
development of VHDL in 1983
VHDL Ver. 7.2 released in 1985
IEEE Std 1076-1987 in 1987
IEEE Std 1076-1993 - revision in 1993
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Levels of Design Abstraction
Can model a digital system at many levels of
abstraction in VHDL.
The algorithmic or functional level
Data flow
Gate level
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Features of VHDL
Case insensitive
inputa, INPUTA and InputA are refer to same variable
Comments
-- until end of line
If you want to comment multiple lines, -- need to be
put at the beginning of every single line
User defined names
letters, numbers, underscores (_)
starts with a letter
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Device Vs Device Model
Digital
System
External View
Internal Views
Device
Model
Device Model
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A VHDL View of a Device
Device
Entity 2
Entity N
.
.
.
.
Entity 1
Device model 1
Device model 2
Device model N
Actual Hardware VHDL View
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Design process of digital system
Design process of a digital system has 4 phases
- Requirement Analysis & Specification
- Design
- Implementation & Testing
- Manufacturing
In 1
st
phase, Function,Performance and
interface requirements are determined and
specified.
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In 2
nd
phase , system is partitioned into different
levels of decomposition such as
- System Design : System is decomposed
several subsystems and the communication protocol
among them is also defined.
- Architectural Design : Architectural style and
performance of each subsystem is determined.
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- RTL Design : Architecture is translated into an
interconnection of RTL Modules.
- Logic design: RTL Modules are constructed
using logic gates.
In 3
rd
phase, subsystems are implemented and
tested including partitioning,placement and routing
to produce a layout of circuit.
In final phase , process is to prototype ,
manufacture the design.
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Advantages of VHDL
Can verify design functionality early in the design
process and simulate a design written as a VHDL
description.
Logic Synthesis and optimization converts a VHDL
description to a gate level implementation in a
given technology.
Reduces circuit design time and errors.
VHDL descriptions provide technology independent
documentation for a design and its functionality.
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Advantages of VHDL
Power and Flexibility
Powerful constructs to write complex logic
It has multiples levels of design descriptions
It supports design libraries and the creation
of reusable components
It provides for design hierarchies to create
module design
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Advantages of VHDL
Device independent design
VHDL permits to create a design without first
choosing the device for implementation
Portability
VHDL is an IEEE standard.
Libraries of VHDL models of components can be
shared across platforms,tools organization and
technical group
ASIC Migration
Quick time to market and low cost
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Capabilities
VHDL supports design hierarchies; that is a
digital system can be modeled as a set of
interconnected components
It supports flexible design methodologies :
top-down , bottom-up or mixed.
VHDL is not technology specific. It can
support various hardware technologies
It supports both synchronous and
asynchronous timing models
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Capabilities
Various modeling techniques such as FSM,
algorithmic and Boolean equations can be
modeled using VHDL.
Any large design can be modeled using
VHDL. No limitation imposed by the
language by the size of a design
Test benches can be written in VHDL to test
other models.
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Capabilities
Nominal Propagation delays, min-max
delays, timing constraints, can all be
described in VHDL
Supports three different description styles:
dataflow, structural and behavioral.
Models written in VHDL can be verified by
Simulation
Behavioral models are capable of being
synthesized to gate- level description
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Summary
VHDL modeling can be used to model
hardware at multiples levels of
abstraction.
VHDL is independent of technology and
design methodologies and promotes
portable descriptions ,rapid prototyping
and free exchange of models among
organizations and individuals.