From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2002-09-20T05:42:00+09:00
Subject: ANNOUNCE: RHDL 0.3.0

After a long break, I finally started working on RHDL again...

With version 0.3.0 RHDL moves a little bit closer to being an actual, 
usable Hardware Description Language.  Most notably, design hierarchy is 
now supported and a 'wait' statement has been added so that processes can 
be suspended until a condition becomes true.

From the README:

RHDL - Ruby Hardware Description Language

RHDL looks similar to VHDL - there are signals and concurrent processes 
which can have sensitivity lists and can be suspended using wait 
statements.

In the examples subdirectory you'll find a couple of examples with
Test::Unit testcases.

The example in testdesign.rb file defines a counter which increments on 
the rising edge of clk.  It also has a synchronous reset so that if the 
rst signal is high on the rising edge of clk, counter gets reset to 0.

To run the testdesign example:

> ruby testdesign.rb
The input vectors and expected output for this testcase are contained
in the file 'count_test_data'.

There is also a testTB.rb example which shows how to do hierarchy and 
structural style in RHDL.

NOTE: You'll need the Test::Unit module to run these examples.  I believe 
that Test::Unit is built into Ruby 1.7, but for 1.6 you'll need to 
download
the package from http://testunit.talbott.ws/ and follow the included 
instructions for installing it.

STATUS:

0.3.0:
* Hierarchy is now working.
* Structural design style is now working and illustrated in 
examples/testTB.rb
* wait statement added which allows processes to be suspended until a 
given condition becomes true.
* converted examples in examples subdir to use Test::Unit instead of Runit

See TODO file for future directions.


If you have questions you can send them to me at:
rubyfan@programmer.net

Phil