Introduction

Sigasi HDT is the compelling next-generation development environment for VHDL designers.

Sigasi HDT is an intelligent development environment (IDE). It differs from other development tools in that it contains an ultra-fast VHDL parser and compiler that runs transparently in the background. At any given moment as you make modifications, the tool fully understands the design in terms of VHDL concepts. This technology makes it possible to support a wide range of powerful features:

Intelligent navigation

Navigate to any VHDL object in the design by selecting it in a hierarchical view. Or directly navigate from an object to its declaration.

Instant error reporting

Get immediate feedback on errors introduced by a modification.

Quickfixes

Fix errors by using a quickfix proposed by the tool.

Intelligent code completion

Use the tool to assist in completing VHDL constructs based on its knowledge of the design.

Refactoring

Use the tool to make sophisticated code transformations that maintain the behavior of the design.

All these features create a novel user experience that greatly improves productivity.

The last feature that was mentioned, refactoring, is Sigasi HDT’s most innovative and powerful functionality. Refactoring is a modern software development technique. Sigasi HDT implements it for digital hardware design.

Refactoring makes a new level of automation available to the designer. You can use it to make code clearer and more reusable, to find bugs, and to prepare code for adding new functionality. Examples of refactorings are:

• intelligent rename of VHDL objects over the whole design
• making all modifications to add or remove a port in a single action
• making all modifications to add or remove a connection in a single action
• modifying design hierarchy
• making code technology independent

Refactoring is a large topic on itself. For that reason, we have written a dedicated book about it: The VHDL Refactoring Book.