A Tutorial Introduction to VHDL Programming

Abstract

This book helps readers create good VHDL descriptions and simulate VHDL designs. It teaches VHDL using selected sample problems, which are solved step by step and with precise explanations, so that readers get a clear idea of what a good VHDL code should look like.

The book is divided into eight chapters, covering aspects ranging from the very basics of VHDL syntax and the module concept, to VHDL logic circuit implementations. In the first chapter, the entity and architecture parts of a VHDL program are explained in detail. The second chapter explains the implementations of combinational logic circuits in VHDL language, while the following chapters offer information on the simulation of VHDL programs and demonstrate how to define data types other than the standard ones available in VHDL libraries. In turn, the fifth chapter explains the implementation of clocked sequential logic circuits, and the sixth shows the implementation of registers and counter packages. The book’s last two chapters detail how components, functions and procedures, as well as floating-point numbers, are implemented in VHDL. The book offers extensive exercises at the end of each chapter, inviting readers to learn VHDL by doing it and writing good code.