VHDL DESIGN-ENTRY TOOL ADDS BLOCK EDITING.(Brief Article)

EDN, April, 1999 by Lipman, Jim

Aldec's new Block Diagram Editor eases your transition from a schematic-based to a VHDL-based design flow. The editor expands the capabilities of Aldec's design-entry tool, Active HDL, letting you mix VHDL code, state diagrams, and block diagrams for a single design, including multilevel and hierarchical designs.

The tool automatically generates graphical symbols for library components and updates the symbols if you make source-code changes. From user-defined blocks, the editor generates code for Exemplar (www.synplicity.com) synthesis tools. A built-in, user-customizable design-rule checker verifies block and block-interconnect validity prior to code generation. You can also edit generated code within Active HDL's text editor.