Good hardware design code re-use strategies, reference book

[wallge]

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.

I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
maintenance.

thanks

 

[John McCaskill]

wallge wrote:

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.

I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
maintenance.

thanks

Take a look at the "Reuse Methodology Manual" by Keating and Bricaud.

http://tinyurl.com/3atmd3

or

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-2090338-2355130?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=reuse+methodology+manual&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

Regards,

John McCaskill
www.fastertechnology.com

 

[Mike Treseler]

wallge wrote:

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.

I organize source files as vhdl-mode projects.
It's free, see:
http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~zimmi/emacs/vhdl-mode.html


-- Mike Treseler

 

In comp.arch.fpga wallge <wallge@gmail.com> wrote:

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.

I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
maintenance.

Use a good version control system.
(Test it before accepting it. Make sure all relevant systems can handle it)

Use one source code management system if possible.

Decide on benefit/cost on clearing up various sources.
(Could start with just describing what it does in general)

 

[Colin Paul Gloster]

John McCaskill posted on 23 Jan 2007 09:51:58 -0800:

"Take a look at the "Reuse Methodology Manual" by Keating and Bricaud."

I have read only a tiny proportion of this book. Which parts could
actually teach someone something useful, if the reader does not
already understand the importance of the points (e.g. I do not think
that I would count "Use Functions" and "Use Loops and Arrays" from
Chapter 5 as being in this category)?

Regards,
Colin Paul Gloster

 

[Bill Mills]

On Jan 24, 4:49 am, pbF...@ludd.invalid wrote:

In comp.arch.fpga wallge <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.
I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
maintenance.Use a good version control system.
(Test it before accepting it. Make sure all relevant systems can handle it)

Use one source code management system if possible.

Look at revision control tools with a "bug tracking" feature.

Decide on benefit/cost on clearing up various sources.
(Could start with just describing what it does in general)