Use of VHDL synthesis in an advanced digital design course

A very-high-speed integrated-circuit hardware description language (VHDL) synthesis tool from Viewlogic is being used in an advanced digital design course. The tool has the capability of synthesizing sequential elements (flip-flops) as well as combinational logic. The tool gives students the capability of practicing a true top-down design methodology. Synthesis implementation targets used were the ITD standard cell library (Oct-tools), the Xilinx field programmable gate array (FPGA), the Actel FPGA, and the Altera FPGA. The addition of the Viewlogic VHDL simulation/synthesis tool and the FPGA mapping software has significantly enhanced the advanced digital design course. It allows students to evaluate tradeoffs between standard cell, Xilinx, Altera, and Actel implementations.< >