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First mixed-HDL Simulator for Linux
Gino writes "Model Technology Inc. will be making their two most powerful tools ModelSim(TM) EE and SE available for the Linux platform in VHDL, Verilog and mixed HDL configurations. Demand for Linux support has been tremendous, apparently due to customer migration to simulator farm environments - multiple node machines configured with Linux as simulation farms proofed to be quite effective. It is good news to see the big HDL boys paying attention to Linux at last. "
HDL stands for Hardware Description Language. They are used by engineers to simulate a computer chips (and other ICs) before they are created. Used mainly for testing to see if what they designed truly does what they want it to do. Very neat. You can simulate an entirely different computer architecture using an HDL.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
Maybe instead of trying as hard as you can to get a first post (unannounced or not), you could learn something on the subject first. Verilog and its ilk are circuit-design languages, where you create functional blocks of circuitry and connect them together, and then you can simulate them accounting for latency and the like. Very good for circuit design, expecially on the IC scale, including CPUs.
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
HDL stands for Hardware Description Language. It's most commonly used to design digital ICs. Everything from very simple logic functions to graphics processors gets designed with some sort of HDL. It's essentially a type of programming language, except instead of executable code, a hardware design is produced.
Two of the more common ones are VHDL and Verilog. If you're really interested, there's a VHDL FAQ you can read. The VHDL acronym is interesting: the V stands for VHSIC, which in turn stands for Very High Speed Integrated Circuits.
-Ed
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
I've got the source code, but I'll have to reinstall gcc 2.7.2 to compile it (I love you Debian). The static binary core dumped immediately.
Has anyone used VBS? How does it compare to the commercial packages -- where on the scale from Wellspring VeriWell (sucks) to Cadence Verilog (powerful, expensive, runs on SPARCs) is it?
I currently use the free (limited circuit size) version of VeriWell on my Linux box and my SPARC (we can use Cadence on the ECE computers here, but I have yet to design anything that complex). I'd just as soon use something free (or better, Free) that doesn't suck.
Yes, I'm very glad to finally see Linux applied to the field of medicine. Even if it is for something so common as cholesterol monitoring.
You know, you just can't overlook the benefits of having your High Density Lipid levels measured on a robust, scalable, secure and (most importantly for the HMO's) FREE Operating System...
Wha?? Oh, nevemind.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
There has been demand for Linux in the EDA/HDL world from the engineering side of the house for years (EETimes has covered it for three years now, and it has to be big enough for them stumble over it). This was a response in most design houses to management wanting to dump UNIX workstations for NT, and most of the software companies were doing that as NT became more reliable for intensive tasks (still not there yet).
Software like this will allow EE programs in schools to have a choice. Many of them were phasing out UNIX for NT because of the software available to VHDL and other courses.
Also, many of the most intense users of computers are the designers that do VHDL and simulation. These people buy a lot of hardware and spend a lot on software, so they tend to carry a bit of influence in where the overall computer market is going.