Sequential vs. Concurrent

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In essence, VHDL is a concurrent language in that all processes execute concurrently. All VHDL execution can be seen as taking place inside processes; concurrent signal assignment statements have already been shown to be equivalent to one-line processes. Within a process, however, VHDL adheres to a sequential mode of execution where statements within a process are executed in "top-to-bottom' fashion until the process suspends at a wait statement.

This simultaneous support of concurrent and sequential modes allows great flexibility in modeling systems at multiple levels of design and description abstraction.