Chapter 1

Using Foundation Express with VHDL

Foundation Express translates a VHDL description to an internal gate-level equivalent format. This format is then optimized for a given FPGA technology.

This chapter discusses concepts that you need to work with VHDL. These concepts are covered in the following sections.

• “Hardware Description Languages”
  
  
• “About VHDL”
  
  
• “Foundation Express Design Process”
  
  
• “Using Foundation Express to Compile a VHDL Design”
  
  
• “Design Methodology”
  
  

The United States Department of Defense, as part of its Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) program, developed VHSIC HDL (VHDL) in 1982. VHDL describes the behavior, function, inputs, and outputs of a digital circuit design. VHDL is similar in style and syntax to modern programing languages, but includes many hardware-specific constructs.

Foundation Express reads and parses the supported VHDL syntax. The “VHDL Constructs” chapter lists all VHDL constructs and includes the level of support provided for each construct.