On 1/2/2014 2:40 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
VHDL is clearly inspired by Ada. I?ve done some
elementary VHDL work
and like it a lot. FWIW, there is an open source VHDL simulator
available (just a simulator, not tied to any real world FPGA) that?s
integrated into GCC ? called GHDL. It seems to work well; I?ve fed
it some rather large models that simulate nicely.
Technically GHDL isn't a simulator. It is just another front-end to GCC.
On linux, GHDL compiles VHDL into an executable - just like any other
programming language.
On windoze, GHDL compiles VHDL into bytecode, I think. I've had some
issues with the windoze version. YMMV.
Not that you'd want to, but, you could use VHDL as just another
programming language.
Not to start a flame war, but it is my personal belief that someone just
getting started with HDLs should strongly consider VHDL. Its strong
type-checking forces you to think about (and understand) signal types
and type conversions.
+1
Rob.