The Howdy Glossary

Verilog is a hardware description language used for modeling electronic systems, primarily focusing on digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It facilitates the design, verification, and implementation processes by enabling emulation of input signals and behavior simulation through models. This allows designers to identify potential issues early in the design phase, reducing costs associated with physical prototyping. Verilog's resemblance to actual hardware modeling and synthesis makes it popular in crafting complex integrated circuits and FPGAs. Its successor, SystemVerilog, further enhances its capabilities by incorporating advanced testbench features for comprehensive verification against specified requirements.

Created by Prabhu Goel in the mid-1980s at Automated Integrated Design Systems (AID) in California, Verilog was later standardized as IEEE 1364 in 1995. This standardization contributed significantly to its widespread adoption across the industry. The development of Verilog marked a pivotal point in revolutionizing hardware description languages, providing engineers with a powerful tool for designing and modeling intricate digital systems.

In competition with other hardware description languages like VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) and SystemC, each offers unique strengths tailored to different project needs. VHDL is known for its formal verification process and documentation rigor, appealing to those prioritizing stringent design procedures. SystemC excels at system-level modeling using a C++ class library suitable for projects where software-hardware integration is essential. While Verilog emphasizes simplicity and high-level synthesis compatibility making it ideal for digital circuit design, designers choose among these languages depending on specific requirements such as project complexity or familiarity with the language's syntax and tools available.