Hardware description languages in Japan

Many design automation systems have been widely used for developing computers; however, the scope of their application is limited to the areas such as generating wiring lists, printed card board patterns, LSI mask patterns, or test patterns for checking out logic and component faults. It has been difficult to develop an automatic design system for computer architecture, essentially because that area involves a good deal of creative work. Thus, practical designers in Japan are addressing themselves to developing a total computer-aided design system with description languages and simulators required for necessary design levels and a data base system to support them.