The FPGA compilation process
The process of compiling a digital circuit model begins with a specification of circuit behavior in a hardware description language, such as VHDL or Verilog, and produces as its output an implementation of that circuit that can be downloaded and executed in an FPGA. The software tool set that performs the synthesis process is sometimes called a silicon compiler or hardware compiler.
FPGA compilation takes place in three steps: synthesis, placement, and routing. Chapter 4, Developing Your First FPGA Program, introduced these steps. Behind the scenes, the software tools that perform the steps implement a collection of sophisticated algorithms to produce an optimized FPGA configuration that correctly implements the circuit described by the source code.
Before you can begin the compilation process, the first step is to create a complete description of the circuit, typically as a collection of files in the VHDL or Verilog languages. This is called design...
