The Designer's Guide to VHDL, Volume 3, Third Edition (Systems on Silicon) (Systems on Silicon)

The book begins with the basics of VHDL, which, like any software language, has keywords, operators, flow control statements, and programming conventions. Next, the author introduces his first case study--a "pipelined multiplier accumulator," which simulates a CPU register. He then moves on to more complicated models, such as a design for a complete CPU (the DLX processor, which is used as a model for educating future CPU designers). More advanced aspects of VHDL follow, including guard signals, abstract data types, and even file I/O. A final case study (for a "queuing network") puts these components into practice. The book closes with a discussion of "synthesizers"--additional software tools that convert a VHDL specification into silicon--and how these tools impose design limits. The appendices include Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) enhancements to VHDL, which have increased the design language's power. Although most of us won't ever need to design our own integrated circuit, this book shows how it's done. Engineering students who need to master VHDL during a semester-length course, will find Ashenden's guide to be indispensable--and written in an accessible style rarely found in engineering texts.

Product Description
VHDL, the IEEE standard hardware description language for describing digital electronic systems, has recently been revised. This book has become a standard in the industry for learning the features of VHDL and using it to verify hardware designs. This third edition is the first comprehensive book on the market to address the new features of VHDL-2008.

* First comprehensive book on VHDL to incorporate all new features of VHDL-2008, the latest release of the VHDL standard...helps readers get up to speed quickly with new features of the new standard.
* Presents a structured guide to the modeling facilities offered by VHDL...shows how VHDL functions to help design digital systems.
* Includes extensive case studies and source code used to develop testbenches and case study examples..helps readers gain maximum facility with VHDL for design of digital systems.

I've learned lots of languages, usually one or two a year. I know what to look for. I want a book that lays it all out clearly enough that I can find what I want. That includes complex data types, overloading, and especially configurability. VHDL really does have almost all the capabilities of a C-like language, plus a few more features, and the author has succeeded in making them accessible.

Configurability deserves special attention - it is an explicit part of the VHDL language. It's a pre-Object-Oriented language but was developed when OO ideas were solidfying in the industry. Although it lacks OO flexibility, Ashenden does point out how "use" and "configure" can give a few of the same effects.

Hardware description languages aren't like regular programming languages, and shouldn't be, and can't be. Still, they're not that different, either. Perhaps you're already a good programmer and already comfortable with digital system basics. If so, this may be the book to give you the language knowledge you need with minimal repetition of what you already know.


Not a practical guide   April 10, 2003
 10 out of 15 found this review helpful

If you are an engineer, like me, wanting to teach yourself VHDL then this is NOT the book for you. The actual mechanics of how to write VHDL code is lost in all of the doctrine superfluously created by the author. The examples he gives in order to clarify points only serve to make the concepts more mysterious. The book fails to make the connection between the software world and what the results of the language are in hardware. The index is minimal and I found it practically useless. It is an exhaustive work with many exercises, but as for practicality--I give it a big thumbs down.