Transpiling Nand2Tetris to VHDL for Teaching Digital Logic

Abstract

Nand2Tetris is a popular introduction to digital logic and computer organization that uses a simplified hardware description language (HDL) to program a hardware simulator. The stripped-down HDL allows students to focus on concepts over ceremony, but does not support running designs on real, physical devices such as FPGAs. In contrast, designs written in an industrial-strength language such as VHDL or Verilog can be run on FPGAs, but are burdened with a significant learning curve. WHiDL is a source-to-source compiler that translates Nand2Tetris HDL to VHDL. The conversion to VHDL allows HDL programs to be run on an FPGA while retaining the simplicity of the original HDL.