(VHSIC Hardware Description Language) A hardware description language (HDL) used to design electronic systems at the component, board and system level. VHDL allows models to be developed at a very high level of abstraction. Initially conceived as a documentation language only, most of the language can today be used for simulation and logic synthesis. VHDL became the IEEE 1076 standard in 1987, but was initially developed for the U.S. military's VHSIC program in 1981. See Verilog and RTL.