Languages for Digital Embedded Systems

Book excerpt: Appropriate for use as a graduate text or a professional reference, Languages for Digital Embedded Systems is the first detailed, broad survey of hardware and software description languages for embedded system design. Instead of promoting the one language that will solve all design problems (which does not and will not ever exist), this book takes the view that different problems demand different languages, and a designer who knows the spectrum of available languages has the advantage over one who is trapped using the wrong language. Languages for Digital Embedded Systems concentrates on successful, widely-used design languages, with a secondary emphasis on those with significant theoretical value. The syntax, semantics, and implementation of each language is discussed, since although hardware synthesis and software compilation technology have steadily improved, coding style still matters, and a thorough understanding of how a language is synthesized or compiled is generally necessary to take full advantage of a language. Practicing designers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates will all benefit from this book. It assumes familiarity with some hardware or software languages, but takes a practical, descriptive view that avoids formalism.