Computer hardware design is rapidly evolving along a similar trajectory to that taken by software engineering 30 years ago. High level textual descriptions are compiled and the resulting schematics may no longer be read by humans. This year, behavioral compilers have come into commercial use and represent a further order of magnitude leverage in the management of complexity over the previous RTL style.
Yet in the current state, this technology is complex and difficult to use. Our encapsulated RTL style simplifies it and permits applications for which behavioral computation is not suited.
In another thread, in this technology, the line between a pure hardware module, a microprogrammed module, and a software emulation becomes ever more blurred. Hardware-software codesign is a field given impetus by these new realities. Similar to the manner in which the new compilation technology permits a late binding to a target technology, so the encapsulated style is capable of a more flexible binding to a hardware or software realization of subsections.