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]

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_g...=reuse+methodology+manual&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

Regards,

John McCaskill
www.fastertechnology.com

 

[Mike Treseler]

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

 

[pbFJKD]

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]

(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.