Evolving standards and methodologies for electronic systems design

Weapons system acquisition and support depends on cost-effective design methodologies and accurate design documentation in support of reuse and redesign. The standard hardware description language VHDL is a critical component in effective acquisition of digital electronic systems. With the ever increasing complexity of systems and interdependency of hardware and software throughout the weapon system life cycle, it is imperative to facilitate the development of effective standards, methodologies, and tools which support the acquisition of complex systems consisting of sophisticated hardware and software. Current standardization efforts address these issues by investigating possible extensions or enhancements to the VHDL language and/or the development of a new system-level design language. This paper considers the capabilities of VHDL and explores avionics system design requirements on extensions to VHDL or new system design languages