VHDL and FPLDs in Digital Systems Design, Prototyping and Customization

This book represents an attempt to treat three aspects of digital systems, design, prototyping and customization, in an integrated manner using two major technologies: VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) as a modeling and specification tool, and Field-Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs) as an implementation technology. They together make a very powerful combination for complex digital systems rapid design and prototyping as the important steps towards manufacturing, or, in the case of feasible quantities, they also provide fast system manufacturing. Combining these two technologies makes possible implementation of very complex digital systems at the desk. VHDL has become a standard tool to capture features of digital systems in a form of behavioral, dataflow or structural models providing a high degree of flexibility. When augmented by a good simulator, VHDL enables extensive verification of features of the system under design, reducing uncertainties at the latter phases of design process. As such, it becomes an unavoidable modeling tool to model digital systems at various levels of abstraction.

Klappentext

VHDL and FPLDs in Digital Systems Design, Prototyping and Customization treats three aspects of digital systems: design, prototyping and customization, in an integrated manner using two technologies. The two technologies are VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and Field-Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs). VHDL is used for modeling and specification; FPLDs are used for implementation. VHDL and FPLDs in Digital Systems Design, Prototyping and Customization is divided into three parts. Part I provides an introduction to the basic features of VHDL with emphasis on modeling and design. All types of VHDL models including behavioral, structural and dataflow models are presented. Part 2 is a bridge to designing and prototyping using FPLDs as the prototyping and implementation technology. Part 3 contains a number of examples and case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of using VHDL and FPLDs in the design of real systems. VHDL and FPLDs in Digital Systems Design, Prototyping and Customization is an invaluable comprehensive reference for the digital designer. This work includes examples and software tied to real-world FPLDs. The reader can see how the material presented applies to real-world devices and can experiment with the software. Also included are large-scale designs like the FLIX microcomputer that demonstrates the power of VHDL.

Zusammenfassung
`The Glossary and Index are good. The section references and selected reading is short... The book is detailed and thorough, and will be useful in helping designing digital systems. It is clearly written and with well-organized text. Overall, this book was a pleasure to read. I recommend it to my students and colleagues from both the electrical engineering and the computer science communities.'
Microelectronics Journal, 30 (1999)

Inhalt
1 - Basic Modeling and Designing with VHDL.- 1 Introduction to VHDL.- 2 VHDL- Language Basic Elements.- 3 Advanced Data Types.- 4 Processes and Sequential Statements.- 5 Concurrency and Behavioral Modeling.- 6 Structural VHDL.- 7 Advanced Topics in VHDL.- 8 VHDL in Simulation - Test Benches.- 9 Synthesizing Logic from VHDL Descriptions.- 2 - FPLDs as Prototyping and Implementation Technology.- 10 FPLDs: Architectures and Examples of Devices.- 11 Design and Prototyping Environments for FPLDs.- 12 Rapid Prototyping Systems for FPLDs.- 13 Using VHDL to Design for Altera's FPLDs.- 3 - Examples of Applications and Case Studies.- 14 Examples of VHDL Designs.- 15 FlexSwitch - A High-Speed ATM Switch.- 16 FLIX - A Custom-Configurable Microcomputer.- 17 Application-Specific Image Enhancement Computing.- References and Selected Reading.- Package Textio.