• The basic idea is a programming language to describe the hardware
• The module begins with module keyword and finishes with the endmodule.
• The internal signals are named with the wire.
• Comments follow //
• The input and output are ports.  These are placed at the beginning of module definition.
• Each statement ends with the semicolon, except the endmodule.
• Design entry by using both behavior and structure
• Simulation modelling
• Testing
• This is a standard language
• Register – It retains the last value assigned to it. Used to represent the storage elements.
• „wire? equivalent; when there are multiple present for drivers driving them, the outputs of the drivers are shorted together.
• Arithmetic operators  -  *, /, +, -, %
• Logical operators - !  logical negation &&  logical AND | |  logical OR
• Relational operators >, <, >=, <=, ==, !=
• Bitwise operators ~, &, |, ^, ~^
• Reduction operators (operate on all bits within the word) &, ~&, |, ~|, ^, ~^
• accepts a single word operand and generates a single bit as output
• Shift operators >>, <<
• Concatenation { }
• Replication { n { } }
• Conditional  <condition> ? <expression1> : <expression2>

 The Basic Structure

module module_name (list_of_ports);

input/output declarations;

local net declarations;

parallel statements;

endmodule

Simple AND circuit for HDL

module simpleand (f, x, y);

 input x, y;

 output f;

 assign f = x & y;

 endmodule

 Simple circuit diagram

 

Simple HDL

module smpl_circuit(A,B,C,x,y);

input A,B,C; output x,y; wire e;

and g1(e,A,B);