TITLE:
     
      Extension of VHDL to Support Multiple Byte Codes
       
    FROM:
     
      Kiyoshi Makino
      SEIKO Instruments Inc.
      6-41-6 Kameido, Koto-ku
      Tokyo 136-8512
      Japan
      kmakino@sii.co.jp

      Masamichi Kawarabayashi
      NEC Corporation
      1753 Shimonumabe, Nakahara-ku
      Kawasaki, Kanagawa 211-8666
      Japan
      kaba@lsi.nec.co.jp
       

    ABSTRACT:
     
      Written Japanese is comprised of many kinds of characters. Whereas one-byte is sufficient for the Roman alphabet, two-byte are required to support written Japanese. It should be noted that written Chinese require three-byte. The scope of this paper is not restricted to written Japanese because we should consider the implementation of the standard which covers the major languages using the multiple-byte characters.

      Currently, VHDL does not support multiple-byte characters. This has proven to be a major impediment to the productivity for electronics designers in Japan, and possibly in other Asian countries. In this paper, we briefly describe the problem, give a short background of the character set required to support Japanese and other multiple-byte characters language, and propose a required change in the IEEE Std 1076.