VHDL Specification Methodology from High-level Specification

Abstract

Design complexity has been increasing exponentially this last decade. In order to cope with such an increase and to keep up designers' productivity, higher level specifications were required. Moreover new synthesis systems, starting with a high level specification, have been developed in order to automate and speed up processor design. This study presents a VHDL specification methodology aimed to extend structured design methodologies to the behavioral level. The goal is to develop VHDL modeling strategies in order to master the design and analysis of large and complex systems. Structured design methodologies are combined with a high-level synthesis system, a VHDL based behavioral synthesis tool, in order to allow hierarchical design and component re-use.