For a review of the first edition (2000) see Zbl 0944.68187). From the foreword: In the second edition of Writing Testbenches, Bergeron raises the verification level of abstraction by introducing coverage-driven constrained-random transaction-level self-checking testbenches ‒ all made possible through the introduction of hardware verification languages (HVLs), such as $e$ from Verisity and Open Vera from Synopsys. The state-of-art methodologies described in Writing Test-benches will contribute greatly to the much-needed equivalent of a synthesis breakthrough in verification productivity.