Overview
The book has been written to introduce students and practitioners alike to two important topics:
- Basic VHDL language concepts
- A framework for thinking and reasoning about the structure and operation of VHDL programs when modeling for simulation and synthesis.
The road to useful models is paved by language features motivated by the need to describe behavioral and physical properties of digital circuits such as events, propagation delays, and concurrency. In this book, each major language construct is studied from two points of view:
- For the purpose of the simulation of physical or behavioral attributes of a digital system
- For the purpose of synthesis of the digital hardware
Each language feature presented in the book is accompanied by a complete example. Simulation and synthesis exercises address one or more associated VHDL modeling concepts. Further, the book is packaged with the Xilinx Student Edition Foundation Series Software, producing a powerful and self-contained learning environment. The result of reading this book is a fast paced ascension through the language to productive applications for solving realistic problems.
Practicing engineers will find the text and tool application self-paced. Instructors will find that the style of the book enables it to be used as a companion to courses in digital logic, computer architecture, or a HDL course. The Xilinx Student Edition tool sets enable students to quickly develop intuition about VHDL models. All readers will progress rapidly from reading to creating functioning models.
By focusing on the most commonly used core constructs and providing tutorials with the accompanying Xilinx Student Edition tools, Introductory VHDL: From Simulation To Synthesis is a must for those wishing to rapidly add VHDL to their skill sets.