When the first edition of this book was published, the idea of combining a text on digital design with one on VHDL seemed novel. At about the same time, several other books with similar themes were published. This book has now been adopted by several universities as a core text. Moreover, the first edition has now been translated into Polish and a low-cost edition has been produced for the People’s Republic of China. This success and the competition convinced me that the idea had been good, but I was not convinced that I had achieved perfection the first time. This new edition corrects what I now feel to have been a mistake in the first version and adds two important topics. These changes are described later in this preface.

This book is intended as a student textbook for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The majority of VHDL books are aimed at practising engineers. Therefore, some features of VHDL are not described at all in this book. Equally, aspects of digital design are covered that would not be included in a typical VHDL book.

Since the publication of the first edition, a new version of the VHDL standard has been agreed and analogue extensions to the language have also been adopted. The second edition of Digital System Design with VHDL includes additions in two important areas; sections on writing testbenches have been added to relevant chapters, and the addition of a new chapter on VHDL-AMS and mixed-signal modeling. The unique approach will be appreciated by undergraduates in Electronic Engineering and Computer Engineering in all years of their courses and by students undertaking postgraduate study. There is also a proven need from industry for graduates with knowledge of VHDL and the associated design tools and this book will be an asset to engineers who wish to continue their studies.