Design of a DBMS for VHDL-based CAD environments

In this paper, we investigate the database support needs of an engineering domain, and propose a conceptual model and database architecture to support electrical CAD applications. This paper emphasizes data representation for designs specified using a standard description language, VHDL. The research offers three basic contributions: (1) a VHDL data model is designed within the framework of a meta-model for electrical CAD modeling, (2) a database system architecture implementing the data model is developed, and (3) a CAD software environment for hardware/software codesign that can benefit from the proposed database technology is described. The data model and database architecture are the foundation for query processing and other database activities.