METHOD FOR STRUCTURED LAYOUT IN A HARDWARE DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE

A method is provided for structured layout of design objects in a hardware description language (HDL). Standard features of the HDL are used to specify a first-level design object and the placement of other design objects in the first-level design object. A first-level design object is declared, wherein the first design object has no input or output ports and has one or more slots available for one or more second-level design objects. Values are assigned to attributes of the first-level design object to indicate placement for the second-level design objects within the first-level design object. The second-level design objects are declared as elements within the first-level design object, and the first- and second-level design objects are thereafter compiled.