<title>Hardware Description System Development</title>

Abstract

Hardware description languages (HDLs) are becoming the primary formal descriptive media for hardware designers. The motivation is to provide a common, unified language for communicating all aspects of hardware design. This communication provides a media for the specification and documentation of the hardware design. If this language were an industrial standard it could be the formal media for exchange of design information within and between companies. Current hardware design complexities require accurate interpretation and simulation. Hence, simulation is a natural adjunct to a hardware description language which provides the user with a model of the hardware. This paper describes a language overview for two implementations of Texas Instrument's Hardware Description Language: that which is part of the Design Utility System being produced by Texas Instruments under the VHSIC contract and that which is part of the internal Texas Instruments Integrated Circuit Design System. Limitations of these systems are discussed and recommendations for their improvement are presented.