The title of this book is somewhat ambiguous in English; a more accurate title would be Design languages for electronic chips and systems. The topics concern the issues surrounding the specification of complex systems in a formal language (Very High Definition Language, VHDL, or one of its variants). This book includes papers from the Forum on Design Languages, 1998 (FDL98) held in Lausanne and FDL99 held in Lyon. The vast majority of the authors are European, to such an extent that it might have been appropriate to include the word “European” somewhere in the book’s title.

The main sections of the book (from the Table of Contents) are

• VHDL Extensions (VHDL-AMS and OO-VHDL)

• System Level Design (SLD) (HW/SW Codesign, cosimulation, and SLD Methods)

• Formal Verification

Although there is some unity in subject matter among the papers, this is really a book only in form; in content it is more like a special-topic issue of a journal. There is some introductory material: a preface by the editor describing the source of the papers, and an overview of the analog/mixed signal (AMS) section of papers. But this is not enough to orient a non-specialist, as one might have expected of the introductory chapter of a book. The papers themselves stand alone, and it is here that the interested investigator may find just what he or she is looking for.

To produce a system from a formal description, there must be a translator that translates that description into to a collection of components that can actually be manufactured. This translator is called a high-level synthesizer. This synthesis tool must be accompanied by simulation and verification tools to make the synthesis procedure usable, and altogether this adds up to a great deal of software. As if producing hardware by this method is not challenging enough, a modern enhancement is to also consider software during this process; that is, hardware/software codesign. These papers address a selection of the issues resulting from this ambitious goal, and most report some success. Nevertheless, the overall goal (synthesis from specification) remains elusive. Those who are pursuing it may find what they need in this book.