GHDL is a shorthand for G Hardware Design Language (currently, G has no meaning). It is a VHDL analyzer, compiler, simulator and (experimental) synthesizer that can process (nearly) any VHDL design. Unlike some other simulators, GHDL is a compiler: it directly translates a VHDL file to machine code, without using an intermediary language such as C or C++. Therefore, the compiled code should be faster and the analysis time should be shorter than with a compiler using an intermediary language.