A visual design environment

This paper describes an approach to hardware design that combines the graphical nature of schematic design systems with the high-level design methodology of hardware description languages. We have developed an environment for the design of electronic systems based on a visual hardware description language. The Visual Design Environment with Objects (or ViDEO environment) allows the user to construct a design as a graphical program in the vVHDL visual hardware description language. The graphical design can be compiled into a standardized representation, analyzed and simulated.