"The United States Department of Defense launched the VHSIC program in 1980 as a joint tri-service (Army/Navy/Air Force) program. The program led to advances in integrated circuit materials, lithography, packaging, testing, and algorithms, and created numerous computer-aided design tools. A well-known part of the program's contribution is VHDL, a hardware description language. The program also redirected the military's interest in GaAs ICs back toward the commercial mainstream of CMOS circuits."
Source: wiktionary