Programming models for FPGAs
I'm no expert on the history of FPGA programming. However, I can point out some guideposts in the area of FPGA programming, and my experience with them to date. Your mileage may, of course, vary.
- Verilog - adapted from simulating circuits to describing them
- Lucid - an improvement on the ergonomics and DX for Verilog
- MyHDL/MiGen/Python - Python based approaches to describing firmware