It is true that building hardware and coding software are different thought processes - to a point. Hardware is inherently parallel, and thus you must think in terms of everything happening simultaneously/in parallel.
JHDL has advantages that you attribute to both VHDL and Verilog. Because it is based on Java, it is much easier to debug than a C-based HDL. Java is also much easier syntactically than VHDL OR Verilog.
JHDL is structural. In JHDL, you describe your circuit using java classes to represent circuit components - for me very intuitive. If you want an AND gate, you instance a new AND gate.
Also, it is very easy to write parametric circuits in JHDL - i.e., an arbitrary-width adder.
JHDL currently does not have a "finished" synthesis tool, but it is currently being worked on. So in the future you will get the best of both worlds - a powerful structural description and synthesis capabilities...
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Check out Xilinx's WebPACK software - it's free w/ registration, and it supports their xc9500 and coolrunner series cplds
a ge .jsp?title=ISE+WebPack
According to their web page, it supports schematic entry, ABEL/HDLs.
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xil_prodcat_landingp
It is true that building hardware and coding software are different thought processes - to a point. Hardware is inherently parallel, and thus you must think in terms of everything happening simultaneously/in parallel.
JHDL has advantages that you attribute to both VHDL and Verilog. Because it is based on Java, it is much easier to debug than a C-based HDL. Java is also much easier syntactically than VHDL OR Verilog.
JHDL is structural. In JHDL, you describe your circuit using java classes to represent circuit components - for me very intuitive. If you want an AND gate, you instance a new AND gate.
Also, it is very easy to write parametric circuits in JHDL - i.e., an arbitrary-width adder.
JHDL currently does not have a "finished" synthesis tool, but it is currently being worked on. So in the future you will get the best of both worlds - a powerful structural description and synthesis capabilities...