Hardware description languages

(HDLs) are extremely important tools for modern digital designers. ... Simulators let you check the values of signals inside your system that might be impossible to measure on a physical piece of hardware. Logic synthesis converts the HDL code into digital logic circuits.

Why do we design in HDL?

HDLs can be used to design and describe the layout of digital systems from simple flip-flop memory units to complex communications protocols. HDLs allow for behavioural, register transfer, gate and switch level logic providing designers with the ability to define levels detail.

What is the role of HDL in IC design process?

HDL can be used to express designs in structural, behavioral or register-transfer-level architectures for the same circuit functionality; in the latter two cases the synthesizer decides the architecture and logic gate layout. HDLs are used to write executable specifications for hardware.