Software and system design

摘要

The VHSIC (Very High Speed Integrated Circuits) program has been initiated by the Department of Defense (DoD) to advance the hardware technology in the area of integrated circuits. Chips with a 1.25-micron feature size have been developed as a part of this program, and chips with a 0.5-micron feature will be developed in the next stage. VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) is being developed to reduce the time and cost of utilizing VHSIC technology in military systems. VHDL will provide a standard medium for communicating digital design data among defense contractors, and between contractors and the DoD.

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The VHDL requirements are based on a workshop organized by the Institute for Defense Analysis in the summer of 1981. Representatives of the government, industry, and the academic community attended this workshop. As a result of a subsequent competitive government procurement, the team of Intermetrics, Texas Instruments, and IBM was awarded a contract to design and implement VHDL and its support environment. The language presented in this session is the result of this team effort which started on July 31, 1983, and will result in the delivery in December of 1985 of the language, as well as a hardware design support environment.