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Brief History of VHDL A
Brief History of VHDL The development of VHDL was initiated in 1981 by the United States Department of Defence to address the hardware life cycle crisis. The cost of reprocuring electronic hardware as technologies became obsolete was reaching crisis point, because the function of the parts was not adequately documented, and the various components making up a system were individually verified using a wide range of different and incompatible simulation languages and tools. The requirement was for a language with a wide range of descriptive capability that would work the same on any simulator and was independent of technology or design methodology.
The standardization process for VHDL was unique in that the participation and feedback from industry was sought at an early stage. A baseline language (version 7.2) was published 2 years before the standard so that tool development could begin in earnest in advance of the standard. All rights to the language definition were given away by the DoD to the IEEE in order to encourage industry acceptance and investment.
DoD Mil Std 454 mandates the supply of a comprehensive VHDL description with every ASIC delivered to the DoD. The best way to provide the required level of description is to use VHDL throughout the design process.
As an IEEE standard, VHDL must undergo a review process every 5 years (or sooner) to ensure its ongoing relevance to the industry. The first such revision was completed in September 1993, and tools conforming to VHDL '93 are now available. VHDL’98? Hmmm...
Summary: History of VHDL
1981 - Initiated by US DoD to address hardware life-cycle crisis
1983-85 - Development of baseline language by Intermetrics, IBM and TI
1986 - All rights transferred to IEEE
1987 - Publication of IEEE Standard
1987 - Mil Std 454 requires comprehensive VHDL descriptions to be delivered with ASICs
1994 - Revised standard (named VHDL 1076-1993)
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