comp.lang.vhdl FAQ part 1 of 4: general

E

Edwin Naroska

Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.008)

comp.lang.vhdl

Frequently Asked Questions And Answers (Part 1): General

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Preliminary Remarks

This is a monthly posting to comp.lang.vhdl containing general information.
Please send additional information directly to the editor:
(e-mail address removed)-technik.uni-dortmund.de (Edwin Naroska)

Corrections and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for all corrections.

There are three other regular postings: part 2 lists books on VHDL, part 3
lists products and services (PD+commercial), part 4 contains descriptions
for a number of terms and phrases used to define VHDL.
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Table of Contents

* 0. General Information/Introduction
o 0.1 The Group - why and what
o 0.2 What Is VHDL
o 0.3 Before Posting
o 0.4 Major Contributors to this FAQ
o 0.5 Disclaimer
* 1. Abbreviations
* 2. Contacts and Archives
o 2.1 Official Contacts
o 2.2 VHDL User Groups
o 2.3 Archives
* 3. VHDL on the Web
o 3.1 Tutorials
o 3.2 VHDL Models
o 3.3 Magazines
o 3.4 VHDL Sites
* 4. Frequently Asked Questions
o 4.1 About Changes to the VHDL Standard
o 4.2 Language Questions
+ 4.2.1 USE of Library Elements?
+ 4.2.2 Component Instantiation and Default Component Binding
+ 4.2.3 GENERATE Usage and Configuration
+ 4.2.4 Aggregates/Arrays Containing a Single Element
+ 4.2.5 Operations With Array Aggregates
+ 4.2.6 How to Attach Attributes Inside of Generate
+ 4.2.7 Notes on Range Directions
+ 4.2.8 Integer - Time Conversion
+ 4.2.9 "Don't Cares" in VHDL
+ 4.2.10 How to Open and Close Files
+ 4.2.11 How to Read/Write Binary Files
+ 4.2.12 How to Use Package Textio for Accessing Text Files
+ 4.2.13 Signal Drivers
+ 4.2.14 Procedures and Drivers
+ 4.2.15 Case Statement
+ 4.2.16 How to Monitor Signals
+ 4.2.17 Resolving Ambiguous Procedure/Function/Operator Calls
+ 4.2.18 How to Resolve Type Ambiguities in Expressions
+ 4.2.19 How to Use Bit Strings as Argument to the
To_StdLogicVector Function
+ 4.2.20 Conflicting Compare Operators
+ 4.2.21 How to Convert Between Enumeration and Integer Values
+ 4.2.22 How to Convert Between ASCII and Characters
+ 4.2.23 How to Convert Between Scalar Values and Strings
+ 4.2.24 How to Convert Bit/Std_Logic_Vectors to Strings
+ 4.2.25 How to Convert Between Integer and
Bit/Std_Logic-Vectors
+ 4.2.26 How to Convert Between bit_vector,
std_logic_vector/std_ulogic_vector and signed/unsigned
+ 4.2.27 Reduction Operators for Bit-Vectors
+ 4.2.28 Gray Code Counter Model
+ 4.2.29 Is There a printf() Like Function in VHDL?
+ 4.2.30 How to Code a Clock Divider
+ 4.2.31 How to Stop Simulation
+ 4.2.32 Ports of Mode Buffer
+ 4.2.33 Multi-Dimensional Arrays
+ 4.2.34 Multi-Dimensional Array Literals
+ 4.2.35 Conditional Compilation
+ 4.2.36 Remarks on Visibility of Declarations
+ 4.2.37 Difference between std_logic and std_ulogic
+ 4.2.38 VHDL and Synthesis
+ 4.2.39 Locally and Globally Static
+ 4.2.40 Arithmetic Operations on Bit-Vectors
+ 4.2.41 VHDL'93 Generates Different Concatenation Results from
VHDL'87
+ 4.2.42 rising_edge(clk) versus (clk'event and clk='1')
o 4.3 What do I Need to Generate Hardware from VHDL Models
o 4.4 PUBLIC DOMAIN Tools?
o 4.5 VHDL Validation Suite Available?
o 4.6 Status of Analog VHDL (VHDL-AMS, 1076.1)
o 4.7 How Can People Get More Information about VHDL-AMS (1076.1)
o 4.8 Standards and Standard Packages
+ 4.8.1 Functions and Operators Defined in Package numeric_std
o 4.9 Where to Obtain the comp.lang.vhdl FAQ
o 4.10 "Frequently Requested" Models/Packages
o 4.11 Arithmetic Packages for bit/std_logic-Vectors
o 4.12 Where Can I Find More Info, Models etc.

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0. General Information/Introduction

0.1 The Group - Why and What

The newsgroup comp.lang.vhdl was created in January 1991. It's an
international forum to discuss ALL topics related to the language VHDL which
is currently defined by the IEEE Standard 1076/2002. Included are language
problems, tools that only support subsets etc. but NOT other languages such
as Verilog HDL. This is not strict - if there is the need to discuss
information exchange from EDIF to VHDL for example, this is a topic of the
group. The group is unmoderated. Please think carefully before posting - it
costs a lot of money! (Take a look into your LRM for example or try to
search Google Groups - if you still cannot find the answer, post your
question, but make sure, that other readers will get the point).

0.2 What Is VHDL

VHDL-1076 (VHSIC (Very High Speed Integrated Circuits) Hardware Description
Language) is an IEEE Standard since 1987. It is "a formal notation intended
for use in all phases of the creation of electronic systems. ... it supports
the development, verification, synthesis, and testing of hardware designs,
the communication of hardware design data ..." [Preface to the IEEE Standard
VHDL Language Reference Manual] and especially simulation of hardware
descriptions. Additionally, VHDL-models are a DoD requirement for vendors.

Today many simulation systems and other tools (synthesis, verification and
others) based on VHDL are available. The VHDL users community is growing
fast. Several international conferences organized by the VHDL Users
Groups(s) have been held with relevant interest. Other international
conferences address the topic as well (Conference on Hardware Description
Languages -CHDL-, Design Automation Conference -DAC- ...).

0.3 Before Posting

* Read the 4 FAQ's - they possibly answer your questions
* Question about the language: try to find out in your LRM
* Search Google Groups. E.g., Google Groups is a good information source
if you are looking for a specific VHDL model. Note, if you prepend your
search string with '~g (comp.lang.vhdl)' Google Groups will search
comp.lang.vhdl postings only.
* Please do not post homework questions to comp.lang.vhdl! Usually, this
kind of queries are easily spotted (see list below) and will not
receive any (useful) answers. However, if you should run into a problem
during your homework you are of course welcome to post problem related
questions.
So, please do not ask for VHDL source code for
o vending machines
o traffic light controllers
o ...
* If you are new to newsgroups you may also read with "How To Ask
Questions The Smart Way" by Eric Steven Raymond
(http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html; please note that
Eric does not reply to VHDL related questions) to ensure that your
posting meets the newsgroup "netiquette".

0.4 Major Contributors to this FAQ

The basic version of this FAQ was created by Tom Dettmer. Georg Staebner
converted Part 4 to HTML. Special thanks to Paul Menchini for
contributing/revising major parts of Section 4.2 as well as Section 4.3!

0.5 Disclaimer

These articles (FAQ Part 1 to 4) are provided as is without any express or
implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy
of the information contained in this article, the author/contributors assume
no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the
use of the information contained herein.

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1. Abbreviations

AHDL:
Analog Hardware Description Language
BBS:
Bulletin Board System
DoD:
USA Department of Defense
FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions
IEEE:
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In case of VHDL,
they defined the standard 1076
LRM:
Language Reference Manual
TISSS:
Tester Independent Support Software System
VASG:
VHDL Analysis and Standardization Group
VFE:
VHDL Forum Europe
VHDL:
VHSIC Hardware Description Language
VHSIC:
Very High Speed Integrated Circuits - A program of the DoD
VI:
VHDL International
VIUF:
VHDL International Users Forum
VUG:
VHDL Users Group, see below
WAVES:
Waveform Vector and Exchange Specification, proposed IEEE Standard

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2. Contacts and Archives

2.1 Official Contacts

Accellera

Accellera's (http://www.accellera.org/) goal is to improve designers'
productivity, the electronic design industry needs a methodology based on
both worldwide standards and open interfaces. Accellera was formed in 2000
through the unification of Open Verilog International and VHDL International
to focus on identifying new standards, development of standards and formats,
and to foster the adoption of new methodologies.

Accellera's mission is to drive worldwide development and use of standards
required by systems, semiconductor and design tools companies, which enhance
a language-based design automation process. Its Board of Directors guides
all the operations and activities of the organization and is comprised of
representatives from ASIC manufacturers, systems companies and design tool
vendors.

The contact address is

Accellera
15466 Los Gatos Boulevard
PMB 071, Suite 109
Los Gatos, CA 95032
Phone: (408) 358-9510
Fax: (408) 358-3910

VHDL International

VHDL International and Open Verilog International have merged into a new
organization, ACCELLERA (see above).

VHDL-AMS, 1076.1 Working Group

The purpose of 1076.1 Working Group (WG) is to develop analog extensions to
VHDL, i.e. to enhance VHDL such that it can support the description and
simulation of circuits that exhibit continuous behavior over time and over
amplitude. As of summer 1993 the IEEE Computer Society, through its
Standards Activity Board (SAB), has approved the 1076.1 WG under PAR1076.1.

1076.1 Executive Committee
Working Group Chair & Secretary:
Alain Vachoux
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Integrated Systems Center
CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Phone: +41 21 693 6984
Fax: +41 21 693 4663
Email: (e-mail address removed)
Working Group Vice-Chair:
Ernst Christen
Analogy Inc.
P.O. Box 1669
9205 SW Gemini Drive
Beaverton, OR 97075-1669, USA
Phone: (503) 520-2720
Fax: (503) 643-3361
Email: (e-mail address removed)
1076.1 Mailing List
Reflectors (information to all members of the mailing list):
(e-mail address removed) European address
(e-mail address removed) US address
Submit new names to be put on the mailing list to
(e-mail address removed)
Submit to 1076.1 Executive Committee only:
(e-mail address removed)
1076.1 Repositories:
ftp://vhdl.org/pub/analog/ftp_files/

See Section 4.6 and http://www.vhdl.org/analog/ for further information.

WAVES/TISSS

Standard for VHDL Waveform and Vector Exchange (WAVES). See
http://www.vhdl.org/waves/ for further information.

2.2 VHDL User Groups

VHDL International Users Forum

The first (VUG) was transformed into the second (VIUF) in 1991. VIUF is
Chaired by Praveen Chawla and is a chapter and thus sponsored by VHDL
International (VI). They organize conferences and have some other
activities.

WWW: http://server.vhdl.org/viuf/
Email: (e-mail address removed)

2.3 Archives

Archives:

* The FAQ is also available by ftp on vhdl.org /pub/comp.lang.vhdl/FAQ*
see VHDL International for details on accessing the server. Further,
you can find this FAQ at http://vhdl.org/comp.lang.vhdl/.
* The ACM SIGDA (Special Interest Group Design Automation) offers a large
amount of info and, besides other stuff, the FAQ of this group and an
archive dating back to 1992. These services, and many others, are
available via the ACM SIGDA Internet Server Project -
http://kona.ee.pitt.edu/

Archives for this newsgroup are at
http://www.sigda.acm.org/Archives/NewsGroupArchives/ or try to search
Google Groups for comp.lang.vhdl news.

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3. VHDL on the Web

Here are some useful links on the web related to VHDL. If you discover an
interesting server not mentioned in this list or a link is broken please
send a note to the editor.

3.1 Tutorials

* An Introductory VHDL Tutorial, Green Mountain Computing Systems:
http://www.gmvhdl.com/VHDL.html
* VHDL Synthesis Tutorial by Bob Reese, Electrical Engineering Department
Mississippi State University:
http://www.erc.msstate.edu/~reese/vhdl_synthesis/
* Introduction to VITAL '95 by Steve Schulz:
http://vhdl.org/vi/vital/wwwpages/steves/
* VHDL-Modelling And Synthesis Of The DLXS RISC Processor by Martin Gumm,
University of Stuttgart:
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/vhdl/vlsi_course/
* Doulos High Level Design Web site; A Hardware Engineers Guide to VHDL:
http://www.doulos.com/hegv/index.htm
* VHDL Synthesis Tutorial from APS:
http://www.associatedpro.com/aps/x84lab/
* Interactive VHDL Tutorial from Aldec, Inc.:
http://www.aldec.com/Registration/Evita_VHDL_Download.HTM
* FPGA Synthesis by Scott E. Harrington:
http://www.ee.duke.edu/Research/VHDL_tutorial/
* VHDL Tutorial by Ulrich Heinkel, Thomas Bürner and Martin Padeffke (in
English and German): http://www.vhdl-online.de/~vhdl/TUTORIAL/
* VHDL-FSM-Tutorial by Martin Padeffke: http://www.vhdl-online.de/FSM/
* VHDL Verification Course by Stefan Doll: http://www.stefanVHDL.com/
* A small VHDL-Tutorial: http://www.eej.ulst.ac.uk/tutor/vhdnotes.html
* MicroLab VLSI Design course:
http://www.microlab.ch/academics/courses/vlsi/
* An online VHDL language guide by Altium Limited:
http://www.acc-eda.com/vhdlref/index.html

3.2 VHDL Models

The following links point to some servers containing "non commercial" VHDL
models. Note, there may be some limitations and restrictions concerning the
use of this software.

* Free Model Foundary (FMF): http://www.eda.org/fmf/wwwpages/Welcome.html
* The Hamburg VHDL archive:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
* RASSP www site: http://www.eda.org/rassp/
* Doulos High Level Design Web site; Monthly-updated Original Models
(developed by Doulos): http://www.doulos.com/fi/
* A pipelined version of the DLX may be found at:
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/vhdl/DLXS-P.beta/ ; for
further information check out
http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ipvr/ise/projekte/dlx/
* EDIF LPM - Library of Parameterized Modules:
http://www.edif.org/edif/lpmweb/
* ERC32 Home page at ESTEC includes ERC32 (a fully functional, timing
accurate model of a radiation-tolerant SPARC V7 processor version) and
LEON-1 (a synthesizable SPARC compatible (integer) processor):
http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/erc32/ or http://www.gaisler.com/
* Micron Technology, Inc. (memories): http://www.micron.com/mti/
* U.C.I. HLSynth92: http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/hlsynth/HLSynth92/
* U.C.I. HLSynth95: http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/hlsynth/HLSynth95/
* A model of the DLX processor from P. Ashenden and an appropriate
assembler:
http://www.ashenden.com.au/designers-guide/DG-DLX-material.html
* A VHDL synthesizable model for the MICROCHIP PIC 16C5X microcontroller
by Tom Coonan: http://www.mindspring.com/~tcoonan/
* VHDL Library of Arithmetic Units developed by R. Zimmermann:
http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~zimmi/arith_lib.html
* CMOSexod: http://www.cmosexod.com/
* OpenIP home page: http://www.opencores.org/OIPC/
* The Free-IP Project Home Page: http://www.free-ip.com/
* A web based Arithmetic Module Generator for High Performance VLSI
Designs (customizable core generator for various arithmetic functions):
http://modgen.fysel.ntnu.no/
* Free behavioral models from Alatek: http://www.alatek.com/
* The OPENCORES.ORG project: http://www.opencores.org

Here are some links to commercial model sites:

* Design And Reuse (searchable database of components from various
vendors): http://www.design-reuse.com/
* 4i2i Communications Ltd: http://www.4i2i.com/ip_cores.htm
* CAST, Inc.: http://www.cast-inc.com/
* Comit Systems, Inc.: http://www.comit.com/
* CorePool: http://www.corepool.com/
* Denali Software, Inc.: http://www.denalisoft.com/
* INICORE: http://www.inicore.com
* Logic Innovations : http://www.logici.com/
* Oxford Semiconductor Ltd: http://www.oxsemi.com/
* PALMCHIP: http://www.palmchip.com/
* Synopsys, Inc.: http://www.synopsys.com/
* VAutomation, Inc.: http://www.vautomation.com/
* inSilicon, Inc.: http://www.vchips.com/
* Millogic: http://www.millogic.com/index.htm
* Sierra Circuit Design, Inc.: http://www.teleport.com/~scd
* Silicore Corporation: http://www.silicore.net/
* Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd: http://www.iss-dsp.com/
* Alatek (synthesizable cores and behavioral models):
http://www.alatek.com/
* Dolphin: http://www.dolphin.fr/
* Digital Core Design: http://www.dcd.com.pl/

A list of cores provided by various vendors is available from
http://www.isdmag.com/eedesign/softcoretables.html. For other commercial
model vendors see FAQ part 3 products & services.

3.3 Magazines

* EE-Times: http://www.eet.com/
* VHDL Times On-Line: http://vhdl.org/vhdl_intl/vltimes/
* The APS EDA Newsletter:
http://www.associatedpro.com/aps_newsletter.html
* Programmable Logic News & Views: http://www.plnv.com/
* EEdesign: http://www.eedesign.com/
* EDN Magazine: http://www.ednmag.com/

3.4 VHDL Sites

* EDA Industry Working Groups homepage: http://www.eda.org/
* The Hamburg VHDL archive:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
* Doulos High Level Design Web site: http://www.doulos.com/
* RASSP WWW site: http://www.eda.org/rassp/
* Accellera: http://www.accellera.org/
* ESA (European Space Agency):
http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/vhdl/vhdlpage.html
* University of Cincinnati: ftp://ftp.ececs.uc.edu/pub/vhdl
* Programmable Logic Jump Station: http://www.optimagic.com
* Leroy's Engineering Web Site: http://www.interfacebus.com or
http://www.interfacebus.com/frames.html
* VHDL-online, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg:
http://www.vhdl-online.de/
* Design Automation Cafe: http://www.dacafe.com/
* VHDL info pages of the Microelectronics Department (University of Ulm,
Germnay): http://mikro.e-technik.uni-ulm.de/vhdl/vhdl_infos.html

See also FAQ part 3 products & services for other VHDL vendor sites.
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4. Frequently Asked Questions

There's not much until today - but I included those questions I've often
heard from beginners. If someone feels, that a point should be included,
please let me know.

4.1 About Changes to the VHDL Standard

According to IEEE rules every five years a standard has to be reproposed and
accepted. This can include changes. Because VHDL is relatively young, the
restandardization in 1992 included changes as well as the revision from 2000
and 2002 (actually, no new VHDL standard was produced in 1997).

Changes in VHDL93 include: groups, shared variables, inclusion of foreign
models in a VHDL description, operators, support of pulse rejection by a
modified delay model, signatures, report statement, basic and extended
identifiers, more syntactic consistency.

A summary of the changes made in VHDL-2000 were presented by Paul Menchini
at a recent IHDL conference on "Whats New: VHDL-2000" (coauthored by J.
Bhasker). The presentation slides are available from
http://users.aol.com/hdlfaq/vhdl2001-foils.pdf.

4.2 Language Related Questions

This chapter tries to answer some questions about language details which
appear more or less regular on the net.

Paul Menchini contributed/revised major parts of this section. Special
thanks to Paul for spending a lot of time and effort on this task!

4.2.1 USE of Library Elements?

Often users believe, they can use names of libraries /= work by simply
inserting a use clause in the source. The analyzer responds with error
messages. Insert a library clause before the use clause and all should work
fine (see your LRM or FAQ Part 4 - B.74 for details).



4.2.2 Component Instantiation and Default Component Binding

VHDL provides three methods for instantiating a component into an
architecture:

* Instantiating a component

Prior to using a component, its interface must be defined in a
component declaration (see FAQ Part 4 - B.135, FAQ Part 4 - B.184, and
FAQ Part 4 - B.107). Note that no entity corresponding to the component
need exist at the time of analysis of the instantiation, as the
component merely defines a local, instantiable interface to the entity
(see FAQ Part 4 - B.132). A good analogy is that of a socket on a
board. The socket is placed and wired up, but nothing yet populates the
socket. (The socket becomes populated during elaboration.)

However, to successfully simulate a design, all sockets must be
populated. One way to do so is with a configuration declaration. A
configuration declaration is a separate design unit that describes the
binding of entity interfaces (and architectures) to component instances
(see FAQ Part 4 - B.45). Consider the following entity-architecture
pair:

entity Test is
port (S1, S2 : in bit; Q : out bit);
end Test;

architecture Structure of Test is
signal A, B, S : bit_vector(0 to 3);

component Nor2
port (I1, I2: in bit;
O: out bit);
end component;

begin
Q1: Nor2 port map (I1 => S1,
I2 => S2,
O => Q);

Add: for i in 0 to 3 generate
Comp: Nor2 port map (I1 => A(i),
I2 => B(i),
O => S(i));
end generate;
end Structure;

The architecture has five component instances. In our board- level
analogy, the architecture represents a board with five sockets, each of
which is supposed to take a two-input NOR gate. A configuration
declaration for "Test(Structure)" binding these five instances is:

configuration Config1 of Test is
use WORK.MyNor2; -- make entity "MyNor2" visible

-- configure architecture "Structure" of entity "Test"
for Structure
for Q1: Nor2 use -- configure instance "Q1"
entity MyNor2(ArchX);
end for;

-- configure instances created by for...generate
for Add
-- configure all instances of component "Nor2"
for all: Nor2 use
entity work.MyNor2(ArchY);
end for;
end for;
end for;
end Config1;

The component declaration can be thought as a definition of a "socket",
while the configuration determines for each instantiated socket the
"IC" (entity) which is plugged into it. Note that the configuration may
also include an additional layer of "wiring" between component ports
(socket) and entity ports (IC). Hence, for example, the name of
component ports might differ from the corresponding entity port names.
In these cases the configuration must establish a connection (mapping)
between component and entity ports. (Such mapping is not part of the
above component declaration.)

In certain circumstances, no configuration declaration is necessary, as
a set of default binding rules can be used to correctly bind entities
(and architectures) to component instances. This use requires that the
corresponding entity has already been successfully analyzed and is
directly visible (see FAQ Part 4 - B.74) at the point of instantiation.
(Note that the requirement that the entity to be bound must have
already been analyzed makes this approach not possible in a top-down
design methodology.)

Further, the interface of the entity and the component must match. For
example, let's say you have an entity interface BAR in library FOO. The
following example will allow the default binding rules to work:

entity E is
end E;

library FOO;
use FOO.BAR; -- make entity BAR visible
architecture A of E is
component BAR
...
end component;
begin
L: BAR ... ;
end A;

Provided that the ports of the entity BAR are identical in number to
those of the component BAR, and provided that, for each port of the
entity BAR, there is a corresponding port of the component BAR that
matches in name, type (and subtype), and has a compatible mode, entity
"E" may be compiled and simulated without providing a configuration.

(Mode compatibility is best achieved by having identical modes on the
two ports; however, certain mismatches are allowed.)

Additionally, an instantiated component may be configured using a
configuration specification. The specification must be placed into the
declarative part of the same block (architecture, block statement or
generate statement) that contains the instance. Taking a previous
example, we can rewrite is to use configuration specifications as
follows:

entity Test is
port (S1, S2 : in bit; Q : out bit);
end Test;

architecture Structure of Test is
signal A, B, S : bit_vector(0 to 3);

component Nor2
port (I1, I2: in bit;
O: out bit);
end component;

-- configure Q1 with:
-- entity interface MyNor2, and
-- architecture body Archx,
-- both found in library WORK
for all: Nor2 use use WORK.MyNor2(ArchX);
begin
Q1: Nor2 port map (I1 => S1,
I2 => S2,
O => Q);

Add: for i in 0 to 3 generate
-- configure all four instances of Comp the same
-- way Q1 has been configured:
for all: Nor2 use WORK.MyNor2(ArchX);
begin
Comp: Nor2 port map (I1 => A(i),
I2 => B(i),
O => S(i));
end generate;
end Structure;

Note, the above example works only with VHDL'93 compliant tools. To
write configuration specifications within a generate statement in a
manner that works for both VHDL'93 and VHDL'87, rewrite the generate
statement as follows (see also Section 4.2.3):

Add: for i in 0 to 3 generate
B: block
-- configure all four instances of Comp the same
-- way Q1 has been configured:
for all: Nor2 use WORK.MyNor2(ArchX);
begin
Comp: Nor2 port map (I1 => A(i),
I2 => B(i),
O => S(i));
end block;
end generate;

* Instantiating an entity (VHDL'93 only)

A model may also directly instantiate an entity interface (and possibly
one of its architectures). However, this approach requires that the
corresponding entity interface (and, if instantiated, the architecture)
be previously analyzed (a bottom-up approach). An example is:

entity E is
end E;

library FOO;
architecture A of E is
begin
L: entity FOO.BAR(Arch) ... ;
end A;

* Instantiating a configuration (VHDL'93 only)

Finally, an entire subtree of a design hierarchy may be directly
instantiated. The requirements are similar to those for the direct
instantiation of the entity. All entities, architectures, packages,
package bodies, and configuration declarations making up the
sub-hierarchy must have been previously analyzed. The following example
shows how to instantiate the sample configuration given above:

entity E is
end E;

architecture A of E is
begin
L: configuration Work.Config1 ... ;
end A;





4.2.3 GENERATE Usage and Configuration

The generate statement (FAQ Part 4 - B.105) is a concurrent statement (FAQ
Part 4 - B.44) that contains other concurrent statements. Two forms exist:
for and if generate. An example which uses both is:

First: if i=0 generate
Q: adder port map (A(0), B(0), Cin, Sum(0), C(0));
end generate;
Second: for i in 1 to 3 generate
Q: adder port map (A(i), B(i), C(i-1), Sum(i), C(i));
end generate;

The components are addressed (e.g., for specification):

First.Q, Second(1).Q, Second(2).Q, and Second(3).Q

An external configuration specification might look like:

for First -- First.Q
for Q: adder use entity work.adder(architectureX);
end for;
end for;

for Second(1) -- Second(1).Q
for Q: adder use entity work.adder(architectureX);
end for;
end for;
for Second(2) -- Second(2).Q
for Q: adder use entity work.adder(architectureY);
end for;
end for;
for Second(3) -- Second(3).Q
for Q: adder use entity work.adder(architectureZ);
end for;
end for;

Note: that form is used in an external configuration. If you need it inside
the architecture you have to insert a block (FAQ Part 4 - B.136) in the
generate statement and place your configuration specification within that
block (see attribute application).

If you have a VHDL'93 compliant tool, things are easier. The generate
statement has a declarative part in which you can directly place any needed
configuration specifications. An example:

First: if i=0 generate
for all: adder use entity work.adder(architectureX);
begin
Q: adder port map (A(0), B(0), Cin, Sum(0), C(0));
end generate;
Second: for i in 1 to 3 generate
for all: adder use entity work.adder(architectureY);
begin
Q: adder port map (A(i), B(i), C(i-1), Sum(i), C(i));
end generate;





4.2.4 Aggregates/Arrays Containing a Single Element

The question is often, whether

-- array type "one_element" contains a single element
subtype one_element IS bit_vector(1 TO 1);

type single IS record
a : integer;
end record;

signal o: one_element;
signal s: single;
...
s <= 1; -- first illegal try to assign a value to
-- the record
s <= (1); -- second try, also not legal in VHDL

o <= '1'; -- first illegal try to assign a value to
-- the array
o <= ('1'); -- second try, also illegal

is valid VHDL? It isn't. "Aggregates containing a single element association
must always be specified using named association in order to distinguish
them from parenthesized expressions." says the LRM. Therefore, "(1)" is
simply a parenthesized expression (equal to "(((1)))").

s <= (a => 1); -- ok
o <= (1 => '1'); -- ok;
o <= (others => '1'); -- also ok, because the compiler
-- can derive from the context that
-- there is only a single element

is valid. See FAQ Part 4 - B.7 for more information on aggregates.



4.2.5 Operations With Array Aggregates

Often operations between vectors (e.g., bit_vector, std_logic_vector,
unsigned, signed) are required where at least one of the arguments is a
constant vector. An example is:

signal Sig : bit_vector(7 downto 0);
...
process
if Sig = "00000000" then -- ok
...
end process;

The compare operation will return true if each of the bits of "Sig" is equal
to '0'.

While in this example the constant vector is defined as a bit string literal
(see also FAQ Part 4 - B.33), it would be more convenient to define the zero
vector using array aggregates (FAQ Part 4 - B.7), as shown in the next
example:

if Sig = (others => '0') then -- illegal!!!
...

The code given above fails to compile as the arguments for vector operators
are usually defined as unconstrained arrays and VHDL does not require the
size of the left and right operator argument to be equal. Hence, it is
impossible for the compiler to determine the bounds of the constant value.

There are several solutions to this problem:

* Use attributes to constraint the aggregate as follows:

if Sig = (Sig'range => '0') then ... -- ok

Note that attributes may be also used to build more complex bit
patterns. For example, the expressions:

Sig = (Sig'high downto Sig'low + 1 => '0', Sig'low => '1')
Sig = (Sig'low + 1 to Sig'high => '0', Sig'low => '1')

are both equivalent to:

Sig = "10000000"

Note that in this case the range direction (see also FAQ Part 4 - B.16
and FAQ Part 4 - B.64) of the aggregate is not derived from "Sig" or
from the directions given in the aggregate expressions. It is
determined by the range direction of the corresponding operator
parameter. As the operator is defined as

function "="(l, r : bit_vector) return boolean

the range direction is derived from the predefined type "bit_vector",
which in turn has an ascending range (FAQ Part 4 - B.16). Consequently,
"Sig'low => '1'" in the aggregate expression given above will set the
first (leftmost) bit of the bit vector to '1'.

* Qualify the aggregate expression with an appropriate constrained array
subtype (see also Section 4.2.17). An example is:

subtype byte is bit_vector(7 downto 0);
...
if Sig = byte'(others => '0') then ...

Similar to the first solution, more complex bit patterns can be
constructed here with this approach. However, now the range direction
of the aggregate is derived from the type that is used to qualify the
aggregate! Hence, in the next example the aggregate is equal to
"00000001":

subtype byte is bit_vector(7 downto 0);
...
Sig = byte'(byte'high downto byte'low + 1 => '0',
byte'low => '1')

* Define a constant with an appropriate value. Note that the bounds of
the constant vector must be either defined by its subtype indication or
must be determinable from the initial value. However, it is recommended
to constrain the constant using an appropriate type or subtype (FAQ
Part 4 - B.235).

constant All_One : bit_vector(7 downto 0) := (others => '1');
...
if Sig = All_One then ...

Note that the assignment symbol (signal or variable assignment) is not a
VHDL operator. Hence, it is not possible to overload it (FAQ Part 4 -
B.174). Furthermore, the size of the right-hand side of an assignment
operation must match the size of its target. If the right-hand side is
unconstrained, this requirement allows the constraint to "cross over" from
the target and determine the bounds and direction of the right-hand side.
Consequently, the following signal assignment statement is legal:

Sig <= (others => '0'); -- ok

Another important issue when building aggregates is that a non locally
static expression for a choice is allowed for an aggregate with a single
choice only. I.e., the following code is illegal as "num" is not locally
static:

variable num : integer;
...
Sig <= (num => '1', others => '0'); -- illegal!!!

The compiler cannot determine which bit of the aggregate is set to '1' as
"num" may vary during runtime. To achieve the desired behavior a process may
be used:

variable num : integer;
...
p: process (num)
begin
Sig <= (others => '0');
Sig(num) <= '1';
end process;





4.2.6 How to Attach Attributes Inside of Generate

The '87 LRM is a bit confused as to whether the generate statement forms a
declarative region, so it does not make provision for a declarative part in
the syntax. However, it was decided that it indeed does form a declarative
region (FAQ Part 4 - B.56), so in the '93 LRM we also included the syntax
extension necessary for a declarative part. For '87, however, there is no
such declarative part. The canonical method is to use an embedded block
statement:

G1:for i in DataIn'Low to DataIn'High generate
b: block -- PJM addition
attribute foo of RECV: label is 42; -- PJM addition
begin -- PJM addition
RECV:CHVQA; [simplified-PJM]
end block b; -- PJM addition
end generate ;

cited from an article of Paul Mechini.



4.2.7 Notes on Range Directions

Consider the following code

signal r3, r4: Bit_Vector(3 downto 0);
...
r3(0 to 1) <= r4(0 to 1);

Note the inverse range directions (FAQ Part 4 - B.193) of the slices (FAQ
Part 4 - B.222) and the arrays "r3" and "r4". The 87 LRM does not clarify,
if this is legal, but the official interpretation of the 87 language (VASG)
says that the directions of slices must match the direction of the array
being sliced. So it is not legal code. This decision is reflected in the
VHDL'93 LRM.

Another related problem is

signal r3, r4: Bit_Vector(3 downto 0);
...
r3(0 downto 3) <= r4(0 downto 3);

As these slices are null slices (FAQ Part 4 - B.167) the code is legal. An
array value of no elements (i.e., having a 'LENGTH of 0, FAQ Part 4 - B.165)
can be assigned to an array having no elements, as long as their types are
the same.



4.2.8 Integer - Time Conversion

The following example converts integer (FAQ Part 4 - B.134) to time (FAQ
Part 4 - B.182) and time to integer.

architecture convert of test is
signal a, c : integer := 20;
signal b : time := 1 ns;
begin
process
begin
wait for 1 fs;
a <= a + 1;
b <= a * 1 fs;
wait for 1 fs;
c <= b / 1 fs;
end process;
end;

Please note that, depending on the actual value of signal b and the internal
representation of time and integer values, the divide operation may
overflow. E.g., some simulators use 32 bits to represent integers and 64
bits to store time values. In this case, the division operation may produce
results that cannot be represented within 32 bits. E.g., 1 ms / 1 fs equals
to 1E12, which cannot be stored as a 32-bit integer. Hence, choose the
divisor carefully, based on the expected time values and the required
resolution, in order to prevent overflows (e.g., 1 ms / 1 ps = 1E9 does not
overflow 32 bits).



4.2.9 "Don't Cares" in VHDL

The names given to the states (be it X, Z, don't care, even 0 and 1) of an
enumeration type (FAQ Part 4 - B.85) have only the meaning brought by the
subprograms of the package that defines the type. For example, 0 is 0 only
because of the way "and", "or", etc., are written. Z is 'high impedance' and
X is 'conflict' only because of the way the package, and particularly the
resolution function is written. As for the "don't care", it has no
particular meaning for simulation, and the STD_LOGIC package does not
provide any semantics for it: it's a normal state.

For example in a case statement like

variable address : std_logic_vector(5 downto 0);
...
case address is
when "-11---" => ...
when "-01---" => ...
when others => ...
end case;

an 'address' value of "111000" or "101000" will match the 'others' clause!
Here is a solution to this problem:

if (address(4 downto 3)="11") then ...
elsif (address(4 downto 3)="01") then ...
else ...
end if;

Another solution is to use the "std_match" functions defined in the
numeric_std package (see Section 4.8):

if (std_match(address, "-11---") then ...
elsif (std_match(address, "-01---") then ...
else ...
end if;

Partially extracted from an article by Jacques Rouillard.



4.2.10 How to Open and Close Files

The answer depends on which version of the language you're using. In
VHDL'87, files cannot be opened and closed under model control. Instead the
file object must be re-elaborated (see FAQ Part 4 - B.81). The following
example shows how access a file via a procedure:

-- VHDL'87 example!
-- Note the file is opend when get_file_data is
-- called and closed when it returns!
procedure get_file_data(file_name : in string) is
type int_file_type is file of integer;
-- see FAQ Part 4 - B.99
file file_identifier : int_file_type is in file_name;
-- open file
begin
... -- read in the file
return; -- note, the file is closed now!
end get_file;
...

get_file_data("file1"); -- reads in the file named "file1"

Additionally, in VHDL'93 it is possible to open and close files under model
control via file_open(...) and file_close(...).

Note that the syntax rule for file declaration in VHDL'87 and VHDL'93 are
different. Moreover, the VHDL'87 syntax rule is not a subset of the
corresponding VHDL'93 syntax rule.

File declartion in VHDL'87:

type integer_file is file of integer;

-- The following two declarations open a file for reading
file file_ident1 : integer_file is "a_file_name1";
file file_ident2 : integer_file is in "a_file_name2";

-- The next declaration opens a file for writing
file file_ident3 : integer_file is out "a_file_name3";

File declaration in VHDL'93:

type integer_file is file of integer;

-- The following two declarations open a file for reading
file file_ident1 : integer_file is "a_file_name1";
file file_ident2 : integer_file open read_mode is
"a_file_name2";

-- The next declaration opens a file for writing
file file_ident3 : integer_file open write_mode is
"a_file_name3";

-- The next declaration opens a file for appending
file file_ident4 : integer_file open append_mode is
"a_file_name4";

-- Finally, in VHDL'93 it is possible to declare a file
-- identifier without associating it with a file name
-- directly. Use the (implicitly declared) procedures
-- file_open(...) and file_close(...) to open/close
-- the file.
file file_ident5 : integer_file;
...
file_open(file_ident5, "a_file_name5", read_mode); -- opens
-- "a_file_name5" for reading
file_close(file_ident5); -- closes file





4.2.11 How to Read/Write Binary Files

The file formats for binary files read or written by VHDL are not
standardized. However, each simulator should be able to read its own
generated binary files. This gives you two choices:

* Write a pre/post-processor to convert binary files into text files and
vice versa. Text files can be read/written by VHDL using the TEXTIO
package.
* Analyze the binary, which is generated by the simulator and then in
turn generate binary according to that format. Usually, binary files
written by VHDL start with a header followed by the actual data part.
The header contains some release and/or type information. However,
there is at least one simulator which doesn't create a header.

Partially extracted from an article posted by Wolfgang Ecker.

To read raw binary files (e.g. bitmaps) a solution was suggested by Edward
Moore which should work at least with Modelsim: Open a file of type
'character', which in Modelsim translates to one byte of i/o. Use the READ
procedure to read each character and the 'VAL and 'POS attributes to convert
from character to integer. Note, this technique does not work with
simulators that use only 7 bits to represent characters.



4.2.12 How to Use Package Textio for Accessing Text Files

While a simulator should always be able to read back its own generated
binary files it is often not possible to share binary files between
different simulators. A portable way to access data from files is provided
by the package IEEE.TextIO, which implements mechanisms to read and write
data values in ASCII format. In detail, it defines subprograms to perform
formatted I/O operations for the data types bit, bit_vector, boolean,
character, integer, real, string and time.

The package TextIO introduces two new types: "line" and "text":

type line is access string; -- line is a pointer to "string"
type text is file of string;

Further, two procedures, readline and writeline, are declared that
respectively read and write an entire line from or to a file. Finally,
TextIO provides a set of overloaded procedures named "read" and "write" to
respectively read or write data values of a specific data type from or to a
line. In detail, separate read and write functions are defined for each of
the data types bit, bit_vector, boolean, character, integer, real, string
and time. The following code shows the declaration of procedures readline
and writeline as well as the corresponding read and write procedures for
type bit:

procedure readline(file F : text; L : out line);
procedure writeline(file F : text; L : inout line);

procedure read(L : inout line; value: out bit;
good : out boolean);
procedure read(L : inout line; value: out bit);

procedure write(L : inout line; value : in bit;
justified : in side := right;
field : in width := 0);

The parameter "good" of the first read procedure returns true if the
operation was successful (and false otherwise) while the second read
procedure generates a run-time error in case of an error occuring while
reading. (Usually, an appropriate message is printed to the screen in this
event.) The optional parameters "justified" and "field" of the write
procedure controls the alignment (left or right) and (minimum) number of
characters which are used to print the corresponding data value (i.e.,
remaining characters not required to print the data value are filled with
blanks). The write procedure for type real has an additional parameter named
"digits", which specifies the number of digits following the decimal point.

As mentioned before the subprograms read and write do not directly access
files but instead read and write data from or to a line. This approach
allows the same file to be accessed simultaneously from several processes.
Hence, in order to write data to a file, a line is first created and
preloaded with the corresponding text. Then, it is atomically written to the
file via writeline. Similarly, reading data from a file is performed as a
sequence of readline and read operations. Note that a single line may
contain several data values, as shown in the following example:

use std.TextIO.all;

entity top is
end top;
architecture arch of top is

type data_set is record
bvec : bit_vector(0 to 7);
int : integer;
end record;

type data_set_vec is array (natural range <>) of data_set;

procedure read_from_file(file_name : string;
dr : out data_set_vec) is
file data_file : text open read_mode is file_name;
variable L : line;
variable i : integer := dr'low;
begin
while not endfile(data_file) loop
-- note that bvec and int are read from the
-- SAME line
readline(data_file, L);
read(L, dr(i).bvec);
read(L, dr(i).int);
deallocate(L); -- just to make sure that no memory
-- is lost
i := i + 1;
end loop;
end read_from_file;

procedure write_to_file(file_name : string;
dw : data_set_vec) is
file data_file : text open write_mode is file_name;
variable L : line;
begin
for i in dw'range loop
-- note that bvec and int are written to the
-- SAME line
write(L, dw(i).bvec);
write(L, dw(i).int);
writeline(data_file, L);
end loop;
end write_to_file;

signal data : data_set_vec(0 to 10) :=
( 1 => ((others => '1'), 0),
3 => ((others => '1'), -1),
others => ((others => '0'), 2));
begin

p: process
variable data_read : data_set_vec(0 to 10);
begin
-- write data to file
write_to_file("testfile.txt", data);
-- then, read it back from file
read_from_file("testfile.txt", data_read);
-- compare read with written data
assert data_read /= data
report "Read data is ok!"
severity note;
wait; -- end process
end process;

end arch;

Note that all procedures modify their parameter L (and hence modify the
string referred to by L):

* Procedure Read automatically removes those characters from L that were
used to determine the data value.
* Procedure Write appends the new data to the line referenced by L (L may
be resized or reallocated by this operation).
* Procedure Readline automatically deallocates its line parameter L
before allocating new memory to store the next line of the file
(however, not all simulators actually do this; hence, performing an
explicit deallocate operation on L before calling readline ensures that
no memory is lost).
* After writing the line to the file, procedure Writeline removes all
characters from L; hence, L will point to a null string after Writeline
has been called.

Note that directly assigning to variables of type line may introduce memory
leaks. E.g., the following procedure will leak memory each time it is
called:

use std.TextIO.all;
...
procedure memory_leak is
variable L : line;
begin
L := new string(1 to 16);
L.all := "this will create";
-- the next assignment creates a memory leak as
-- L is not deallocated!
L := new string(1 to 12);
L.all := "memory leaks";
-- as assigning null to L does not automatically
-- deallocates memory the following line also
-- leaks memory
L := null;
L := new string(1 to 1);
-- further, returning without deallocating L will
-- most probably create another memory leak!
end procedure;

In addition, TextIO contains a function Endfile, which is a predicate that
indicates whether the next call to Readline will fail. (That is, as long as
Endfile returns false, the next Readline on the same file will succeed.)

Further, two special files "output" and "input" are defined in IEEE.TextIO
to support console I/O operations. In conjunction with the readline,
writeline, read, and write procedures, they may be used to print text to the
screen or to read data from the keyboard.



4.2.13 Signal Drivers

Each concurrent statement (see FAQ Part 4 - B.44) that executes (namely,
processes, concurrent signal assignment statements, and concurrent procedure
calls) has a separate driver (see FAQ Part 4 - B.78) for the longest static
prefix (see FAQ Part 4 - B.151) of each signal that is target of a signal
assignment statement within the concurrent statement (Concurrent asserts
execute, but are always passive; that is, they contain no drivers as they
never assign to signals).

It does not matter whether or not a specific signal assignment statement
will actually be executed. For example, the following process "p" contains
two drivers, one each for signals "s1" and "s2":

signal s1, s2 : integer;
...
p: process (s1, s2)
begin
s1 <= 1;
if false then -- note, the condition always evaluates to
false
s2 <= 1; -- this line actually will be never executed!
end if;
end process;

Hence, should there be another process driving signal "s2", the model
contains multiple drivers for an unresolved signal (see FAQ Part 4 - B.204),
which is an error.

Note that in the case of a process, there is a maximum of one driver per
signal driven, no matter how many assignments to that signal appear within
the process. For example, the following process has two drivers, one each
for each of the signals Q and QBar:

process (Clk, Clr)
begin
case To_X01( Clr ) is
when '1' =>
Q <= '0';
QBar <= '1';

when '0' =>
if rising_edge( Clk ) then
Q <= D;
QBar <= not D;
end if;

when 'X' =>
Q <= 'X';
QBar <= 'X';
end case;
end process;

The initial value of a driver is defined by the default value associated
with the signal (see FAQ Part 4 - B.58). Because in the first example no
explicit default value is given for "s1" and "s2", the initial value of the
drivers for both signals will be set to the left bound of the integer type
(usually -2147483647).

Further, VHDL needs to be able to statically (that is, during static
elaboration) determine all drivers of a signal, in order to create a static
network topology. A driver is created for the longest static prefix of each
target signal. During elaboration the compiler analyzes the target of each
signal assignment statement to determine the smallest portion of the signal
that can be statically determined as being driven by the concurrent
statement. For example, the following model is erroneous, as both the
process "p" and the concurrent signal assignment both drive "sig(3)", an
unresolved signal.

architecture behave of test is
signal sig : bit_vector(0 TO 7);
constant c : integer := 3;
begin
p: process (sig)
begin
for i in 1 to 1 loop
sig(i) <= '1'; -- signal assignment statement
end loop;
end process;

sig(c) <= '1'; -- concurrent signal assignment driving
-- "sig(3)"
end behave;

In this example, the longest static prefix of the target of the assignment
statement "sig(i) <= '1'" is the entire signal "sig", since "sig" is a
static signal name and "i" is a loop constant and hence not static.
Consequently, "p" has a driver for the entire signal "sig", although
actuality only "sig(1)" will be driven by the process. Further, the longest
static prefix of the concurrent signal assignment is "sig(3)", since "c" is
a statically elaborated constant equal to 3. Hence, an error message should
be generated to the effect that several processes are driving "sig(3)".

Note that the longest static prefix of a target of a signal assignment is
determined at elaboration time. For example,

entity test is
generic (g : integer range 0 to 7);
end test;
architecture behave of test is
signal sig : bit_vector(0 to 7);
begin
sig(2) <= '1'; -- concurrent signal assignment #1
-- driving "sig(2)"
sig(g) <= '1'; -- concurrent signal assignment #2
-- driving "sig(g)"
end behave;

The longest static prefix of "sig(g)" is the element of "sig" determined by
the generic parameter "g" (and NOT all elements of signal "sig"), since "g"
is constant during elaboration. Hence, an error will only occur if "g" is
set to 2 during elaboration:

-- this component instantiation will produce no error

comp_ok: entity test(behave) generic map(0);

-- the following instantiation is erroneous since
-- both concurrent signal assignment statements of
-- component "comp_error" are driving "sig(2)"
-- (which is not of a resolved type).
comp_error: entity test(behave) generic map(2);

There are situations where it is useful to drive a signal by several
processes; for example, when the signal represents a tristate bus. However,
VHDL does not build in any resolution mechanisms, so this situation requires
that a resolution function (see FAQ Part 4 - B.202) be associated with the
multiply driven signal. The following simple example shows how to use the
resolved type "std_logic" (defined in the package "std_logic_1164") to drive
a signal with two concurrent signal assignments:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
architecture test_arch of test is
-- "std_logic" is a resolved multi-value logic type
-- defined in the package "std_logic_1164".
signal source1, source2, target : std_logic;
signal control : bit;
begin
-- depending on the value of "control" either the value
-- of "source1" or "source2" is assigned to "target".
target <= source1 when control = '1' else 'Z'; -- driver #1
target <= source2 when control = '0' else 'Z'; -- driver #2
end test_arch;





4.2.14 Procedures and Drivers

Procedures may contain signal assignment statements. In this case, the
driver or drivers (see FAQ Part 4 - B.78) corresponding to these assignments
are not associated with the procedure, but with the process(es) calling the
procedure. As stated in Section 4.2.13, VHDL needs to be able to statically
determine all drivers of a signal. Hence, unless the procedure is declared
within a process (and therefore callable only by the process), the procedure
must drive only signals passed as parameters to the procedure. This
restriction allows the elaborator to determine the signals that are driven
by a given process, so that the drivers for the process can be identified
during elaboration.

For example,

architecture behave of test is
signal s1, s2 : std_logic;

-- "global" may be called by several processes.
-- Consequently, it must drive only signals passed
-- as parameters.
procedure global(signal proc_sig : out std_logic) is
begin
proc_sig <= '0';
end global;

begin
-- "p1" has a driver for "s1" and "s2"
p1: process (...)
-- "local" can be called by "p1" only. Hence it can
-- directly write to signal "s1"
procedure local is
begin
s1 <= '0';
end local;
begin
local; -- creates a driver for "s1"
global(s2); -- creates a driver for "s2"
end process;

-- "p2" has a driver for "s1"
p2: process (...)
begin
global(s1); -- created a driver for "s1"
end process;
end test_arch;





4.2.15 Case Statement

For each case statement the compiler must verify that alternatives defined
by the type of the selection expression are covered exactly once by the set
of choices. (This condition is also required of selected signal assignment
statements.) A necessary condition of this check is that the choices must be
locally static (see FAQ Part 4 - B.147 and Section 4.2.39); i.e., they must
be determinable at compilation time and thereafter fixed. The following
example meets these conditions:

subtype my_int is integer range 0 to 2;
signal sig : my_int;
constant const_a : my_int := 0;
...
case sig is
when const_a => ...
when 1 => ...
when 1+1 => ...
end case;

while this example fails to compile as it violates the above requirements:

entity test is
generic (gen_b : bit := '1');
end test;
architecture erroneous of test is
signal sig : bit;
variable var_a : bit := '0';
begin
...
case sig is
when var_a => ... -- error: "var_a" is not locally
-- static!
when gen_b => ... -- error: "gen_b" is not locally
-- static!
end case;
...
end erroneous;

If you find that you must use non-locally static choices in a case
statement, you must instead use a if-then-else chain. For example, the above
architecture can be rewritten correctly as:

architecture correct of test is
signal sig : bit;
variable var_a : bit := '0';
begin
...
if sig = var_a then
...
elsif sig = gen_b then
...
end if;
...
end correct;





4.2.16 How to Monitor Signals

VHDL does not grant direct access to signals at arbitrary locations in the
design hierarchy. Hence, you cannot directly read or write signals at the
top-level interface from the testbench.

There are three solutions to this problem:

* Add appropriate ports to the affected components to pull the signals up
to the top level hierarchy. For example, consider the following model:

entity test is
port (...);
end test;
architecture behave of test is
signal local : bit; -- a locally declared signal
begin
...
end behave;

To monitor the signal named "local" of the component, add an out port
to the interface and drive it with the value to be monitored:

entity test is
port (...; monitor : out bit);
end test;
architecture behave of test is
signal local : bit; -- a locally declared signal which
-- shall be monitored
begin
...
monitor <= local;
end behave;

* Another method is to assign the values to be monitored to
package-resident signals. Package-resident signals can be read and
written from anywhere in the design hierarchy. For example, create a
package:

package monitor_signals is
signal monitor : bit;
end monitor_signals;

and add a corresponding statement to drive the monitor signal from your
model:

use work.monitor_signals.all; -- make the "monitor"
-- signal visible
entity test is
port (...);
end test;
architecture behave of test is
signal local : bit; -- a locally declared signal
-- which shall be monitored
begin
...
monitor <= local; -- copy the signal value to the
-- monitor signal
end behave;

In a similar way the monitor signal can now be read in each level of
the design hierarchy, including the testbench.
* Some simulators provide access to arbitrary signals in the design
hierarchy via internal simulator functions or special simulator control
commands. A document (along with example code and required binaries)
describing how to monitor signals using the Modelsim VHDL simulator
from Model Technology is available from
http://www.model.com/support/technote/index.html. A similar solution
for NC-VHDL from Cadence is available from
http://in.geocities.com/srinivasan_v2001/technical/nc_signal_spy.htm.
However, these methods are simulator dependent and hence not portable.





4.2.17 Resolving Ambiguous Procedure/Function/Operator Calls

VHDL uses the parameter and result type profiles of functions and procedures
to uniquely determine the subprogram to call. (Enumeration literals also
have parameter and result type profiles.) In detail, it uses:

* the subprogram name,
* parameter types (in order), and the return type

to identify the subprogram (see also FAQ Part 4 - B.177 and
faq4ref(parameter and result type profile, B.178)). For example, consider
the following two packages, "A" and "B":

package A is
function func(p1 : in integer; p2 : in bit := '1')
return integer;
procedure proc(p1: inout bit);
function "="(p1 : bit; p2 : bit) return bit;
end package;

package B is
-- note, "func" of both packages differ in their result
-- type only
function func(p1 : in integer; p2 : in bit) return bit;
-- "proc" has the same parameter profile than "proc"
-- of package "A"
procedure proc(x1: inout bit);
function "="(p1 : bit; p2 : bit) return bit;
end package;

The subprograms "func" and "proc" may be used as follows

use work.A.all; -- make declarations of package "A" visible
use work.B.all; -- make declarations of package "B" visible
architecture behave of test is
signal int_signal : integer;
signal bit_signal : bit;
begin
-- calls "func" from package "A":
int_signal <= func(int_signal, bit_signal);

-- calls "func" from package "A":
int_signal <= func(int_signal);

-- calls "func" from package "B" because the result type of
-- "B.func" matches the type of "bit_signal"
bit_signal <= func(int_signal, bit_signal);

-- calls "proc" from package "A"
proc(p1 => bit_signal);

-- calls "proc" from package "B"
proc(x1 => bit_signal);
end behave;

There are situations where it is not possible for the compiler to uniquely
select a subprogram. Expanded names can often be used to identify the
correct subprograms in such cases (see also FAQ Part 4 - B.90):

use work.A.all; -- make declarations of package "A" visible
use work.B.all; -- make declarations of package "B" visible
architecture behave of test is
signal int_signal : integer;
signal bit_signal : bit;
begin
-- use selected names to identify which subprogram to call
work.A.proc(bit_signal); -- calls "proc" from package "A"
work.B.proc(bit_signal); -- calls "proc" from package "B"

-- selected names can be use to identify operators as well
-- calls "=" from "A":
bit_signal <= work.A."="(bit_signal, bit_signal);

-- calls "=" from "B":
bit_signal <= work.B."="(bit_signal, bit_signal);
end behave;





4.2.18 How to Resolve Type Ambiguities in Expressions

VHDL is a strongly typed language. Hence, the compiler does not perform any
implicit type conversions or attempt to "guess" the type of an expression.
VHDL provides two mechanisms to change or fix the type of an expression:
1. "Type conversion" may be used to change the type of an expression (see
also FAQ Part 4 - B.243). In VHDL, type conversions are allowed only between
types that are "closely related" (see also FAQ Part 4 - B.40). Two types are
closely related if and only if one of the following conditions hold:

* A type is closely related to itself.
* Two scalar types are closely related if they are abstract numerical
types. The abstract numeric types are the integer types and the
floating point types.
* Two array types are closely related if and only if they have the same
number of dimensions, the array element types are equal, and the
corresponding index types are closely related.

Note, during conversion some information might be lost. E.g., converting a
real to an integer will round. A type conversion is coded by enclosing the
expression to be converted in parenthesis and prepending the target type
name. The following example shows how to convert between values of the types
integer and real:

variable int : integer;
variable float : real;
...
int := integer(float); -- converting real to integer
real := real(int); -- converting integer to real

2. "Qualified expressions" may be used to explicitly identify the type, and
possibly the subtype, of an expression. Such qualification is a "hint" to
the compiler, informing it as to the desired interpretation of the
expression being qualified. Hence, such qualification is legal only if the
expression can be legally interpreted as a value of the qualifying type. In
contrast to type conversion, no information loss can occur.

The syntax of a qualified expression is similar to the syntax of a type
conversion. The difference is that a "tick" (the ''' character) is inserted
between the type name and the parentheses surrounding the expression, as
shown in the next example:

-- note, both enumeration type declarations have some common
-- enumeration items
type color1 is (violet, blue, green, yellow, red);
type color2 is (black, blue, green, red);

-- this array type has an index type "color1". Without
-- using type qualification this example will not compile
-- because the compiler cannot determine the type
-- of "blue" (might be "color1" or "color2").
type a1 is array(color1'(blue) to color1'(red));

-- this array type has an index type "color2". Without
-- using type qualification this example will not compile
type a2 is array(color2'(blue) to color2'(red));

A common use for qualified expressions is in disambiguating the meaning of
strings and aggregates (FAQ Part 4 - B.7), whose type can only be determined
from context. For example, the textio package has write procedures for both
strings and bit vectors, so the following example is ambiguous:

variable L: Std.TextIO.Line;
...
Std.TextIO.Write( L, "1001" );

The problem here is that the string "1001" can be interpreted either as a
character string or as a bit vector. Since textio contains write procedures
for both strings and bit vectors, the VHDL analyzer cannot determine which
write procedure to call, so an error is generated.

The fix is simple: Use a qualified expression to disambiguate the string.
Either of the following lines may be substituted for the ambiguous line
above:

Std.TextIO.Write( L, String'("1001") );

or

Std.TextIO.Write( L, Bit_Vector'("1001") );

For many typical conversion problems that cannot be solved by VHDL "type
conversion" or "type qualification" a set of appropriate conversion
functions were defined in various packages. Hence, before writing your own
routine check out the corresponding packages (e.g., a table of conversion
functions defined in ieee.std_logic_1164 and ieee.numeric_std is available
from http://www.ce.rit.edu/pxseec/VHDL/Conversions.htm).



4.2.19 How to Use Bit Strings as Argument to the To_StdLogicVector Function

An easy way to initialize a std_logic_vector or std_ulogic_vector in VHDL is
to define the bit pattern via a bit string. However, when using the
To_StdLogicVector function to convert a bit string into a std_logic_vector
VHDL'87 and VHDL'93 compliant compilers behave differently. For example:

use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
use IEEE.std_logic_unsigned.all; -- See Section 4.11

-- This will NOT compile with a VHDL'93 compliant compiler!
constant c : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0)
:= To_StdLogicVector(x"0080_0000");

While the example shown above is valid in VHDL'87, the function call to
To_StdLogicVector is ambiguous in VHDL'93. In VHDL'87, bit strings (such as
x"0080_0000") can only be of type Bit_Vector. However, in '93, bit strings
can be of any one-dimensional array type that includes the values '1' and
'0'. So, in '93, there are three possible interpretations of the bit string
in the above example:

* As a bit_vector.
* As a std_ulogic_vector.
* As a std_logic_vector.

Since both the following functions exist, the expression is ambiguous in
'93:

function To_StdLogicVector (P: Bit_Vector)
return std_logic_vector;

function To_StdLogicVector (P: std_ulogic_vector)
return std_logic_vector;

The expression is not ambiguous in '87 since there's only one interpretation
of the bit string.

A universal way (i.e., one that works in both versions of VHDL) to create a
constant is:

constant c: std_logic_vector(31 downto 0)
:= To_StdLogicVector(Bit_Vector'(x"0080_0000"));

Here, type qualification is used to select the desired interpretation of the
bit string. Therefore, the call to To_StdLogicVector is unambiguous in
VHDL'93.

Of course, for this particular example, it may be easier to use an aggregate
and avoid this whole issue:

constant c: std_logic_vector(31 downto 0)
:= (22 => '1', others => '0');

Note, while all simulators should handle the above constructs, synthesis
tools still vary widely in their ability to handle aggregates and
conversions.



4.2.20 Conflicting Compare Operators

As described in Section 4.11, not all packages that are usually stored in
library IEEE are really standardized. E.g., while std_logic_1164 is a
standard package approved by the IEEE, package std_logic_unsigned is
provided by Synopsys but not supported by IEEE. Unfortunately, Synopsys
introduced a flaw into std_logic_unsigned (as well as into package
std_logic_signed) that is flagged by some compilers. An example where this
error may show up is shown below:

use ieee.std_logic_1164.all; -- IEEE package
use ieee.std_logic_unsigned.all; -- Synopsys package
...
variable v1, v2 : std_logic_vector(3 downto 0);
...
if v1 = v2 then -- error! Neither the implicit "="
-- operator (defined in std_logic_1164 nor the
-- explicit operator (defined in std_logic_unsigned)
-- are directly visible here.
...

In std_logic_1164, type STD_LOGIC_VECTOR is defined along with an
appropriate compare operator, "=", that is automatically (and implicitly)
created by the type declaration of STD_LOGIC_VECTOR. This implicitly defined
operator conflicts with an explicitly defined compare operator "="
introduced in std_logic_unsigned. Due to the visibility rules of VHDL, both
operators become invisible after the second use clause. As a result, the
subsequent compare operation, "v1 = v2", is invalid as no appropriate
(directly visible) "=" operator is found at this point in the source code
(see also Section 4.2.36).

While some compilers ignore this conflict and automatically (and improperly)
choose the explicit operator declaration (from package std_logic_unsigned),
other tools (properly) flag an error. There are several solutions to
overcome this problem:

* Choose the operator by selection telling the compiler which operator
from which package shall be called (see also Section 4.2.36). E.g.,

if ieee.std_logic_unsigned."="(v1, v2) then
...

* Often, compilers provide a switch to prioritize explicit declarations.
(Note, this is an extra-language capability.)
* If possible, use ieee.numeric_std instead of the non-standard Synopsys
packages. However, note that numeric_std requires STD_LOGIC_VECTORs to
be converted to SIGNED or UNSIGNED before applying any arithmetic
operations on them (see also Sections 4.2.40, 4.8.1 and 4.11). (A
better solution is to operate internally on SIGNED or UNSIGNED vectors
as appropriate and convert only as necessary at the interfaces.

Note that the reason for this conflict is that the operator function "="
from std_logic_unsigned is not located in the same package as the type
STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (which resides in package std_logic_1164). To prevent these
kind of problems, type definitions and their associated explicit operators
should be located in the same package (same declarative region). Then, the
compiler will always choose the explicit operator.





4.2.21 How to Convert Between Enumeration and Integer Values

An enumeration type declaration defines a type as an ordered set of
enumeration literals (FAQ Part 4 - B.85). Each enumeration literal has a
unique "position number," which is an integer value. (Values of integer and
physical types also have position numbers.) The position number of the
leftmost enumeration literal is 0, the next literal has the position number
1, etc. For example,

-- In the following type, the enumeration literal "violet"
-- has the position number 0, "blue" has the position
-- number 1, "green" has 2, "yellow" has 3, and "red" has
-- the position number 4.
type color is (violet, blue, green, yellow, red);

Two predefined attributes exist to convert between values and their
associated position numbers (FAQ Part 4 - B.77). The predefined attribute
'pos, when given a type and the value, will provide the position number. The
predefined attribute 'Val, when given a type and a position number, will
return the value corresponding to the position number (FAQ Part 4 - B.24).
For example, given the above type color, the following assertions never
fail:

assert color'pos(violet) = 0;
assert color'val(0) = violet;

(The type must be provided since enumeration literals may be overloaded.)
For example, the following assertion does not fail:

assert bit'pos('0') /= character'pos('0');

Some other examples:

signal hat : color := blue;
signal int : integer := 0;
...

-- this is equal to "int <= 1"
int <= color'pos(green);

-- assigns the position number of enumeration
-- value associated with the value of "hat"
int <= color'pos(hat);

-- this is equal to "hat <= violet"
hat <= color'val(0);

-- assigns the enumeration value associated
-- with position "int"
hat <= color'val(int);

Note that the predefined type character is an enumeration type. Hence,
attributes 'pos and 'val may be used to convert character to and from their
integer (ASCII) equivalent:

signal char : character := 'a';
signal int : integer := 32;
...
-- converts character 'b' to integer (ASCII)
int <= character'val ('b');

-- converts character stored in char to
-- integer (ASCII)
int <= character'val (char);

-- converts integer stored in int to
-- character
char <= character'pos (int);





4.2.22 How to Convert Between ASCII and Characters

See Section 4.2.21.



4.2.23 How to Convert Between Scalar Values and Strings

In VHDL'93 a mechanism to convert between strings and scalar types is
implemented. The attribute (FAQ Part 4 - B.24) "T'image(...)" converts a
scalar value into its string representation, while "T'value(...)" is used to
transform a string into the corresponding value of type T, where T is the
name of a scalar type or subtype. T'image(...) is often used to report the
value of an scalar object on the screen during simulation, as shown in the
following example:

type color is (violet, blue, green, yellow, red);

process (...)
variable var : color;
variable int : integer;
variable str : string := "yellow";
begin
-- "color'image(var)" may be used to output the
-- value of variable "var" on the screen
report "The value of var is" & color'image(var);

-- "color'value(str)" returns the value
-- associated with the string "str"
var := color'value(str);

-- "integer'image(int)" returns the textual
-- representation of "int"
report " while the value of int is " & integer'image(int);

-- the following code sequence will store the
-- value 123 into "int"
str := "123";
int := integer'value(str);
end process;

However, VHDL'87 does not provide this attribute. On such a system the
appropriate "write" function from the textio package may be used to plot the
value into a string.

Another option to convert enumeration values to their corresponding string
representation in VHDL'87 is to create an array of strings where each array
element stores the string representation of an enumeration item. For
example,

type color is (violet, blue, green, yellow, red); -- the type
-- next, define an array of strings index by "color"
-- and create a table of "color names"
type color_table is array (color) of string(1 to 7);
constant color2str : color_table :=
( "violett", "blue ", "green ", "yellow ", "red ");
...
variable color_obj : color;
...
-- color2str usage
report "value of color_obj is " & color2str(enum_obj);





4.2.24 How to Convert Bit/Std_Logic_Vectors to Strings

As mentioned in the previous section the predefined attribute "image" is
only applicable on scalars. Hence, bit_vectors or std_logic_vectors cannot
be directly converted to strings using build-in VHDL mechanisms. However,
there are packages listed in Section 4.10 that provide this functionality.



4.2.25 How to Convert Between Integer and Bit/Std_Logic-Vectors

There are two IEEE-standard packages that provide functionality to convert
between integers and either bit_vectors or std_logic_vectors:

* "IEEE.numeric_bit" includes functions to convert bit-based vectors
* "IEEE.numeric_std" includes functionality to convert std_logic_vectors

Both packages (see Section 4.8 on how to get these packages) define two new
vector types: SIGNED and UNSIGNED. SIGNED vectors represent two's-complement
integers, while UNSIGNED vectors represent unsigned-magnitude integers. Each
package includes four conversion functions:

function TO_INTEGER (ARG: UNSIGNED) return NATURAL;
-- Result subtype: NATURAL. Value cannot be negative since
-- parameter is an UNSIGNED vector.
-- Result: Converts the UNSIGNED vector to an INTEGER.

function TO_INTEGER (ARG: SIGNED) return INTEGER;
-- Result subtype: INTEGER
-- Result: Converts a SIGNED vector to an INTEGER.

function TO_UNSIGNED (ARG, SIZE: NATURAL) return UNSIGNED;
-- Result subtype: UNSIGNED(SIZE-1 downto 0)
-- Result: Converts a non-negative INTEGER to an UNSIGNED
-- vector with the specified size.

function TO_SIGNED (ARG: INTEGER; SIZE: NATURAL) return
SIGNED;
-- Result subtype: SIGNED(SIZE-1 downto 0)
-- Result: Converts an INTEGER to a SIGNED vector of the
-- specified size.

The first two functions may be used to convert a UNSIGNED or SIGNED vector
to an integer. For example,

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
use IEEE.numeric_std.all;
...
variable int : integer;
variable unsigned_vec : UNSIGNED(0 to 7);
variable signed_vec : SIGNED(0 to 7);
...
int := TO_INTEGER(unsigned_vec);
int := TO_INTEGER(signed_vec);

Note that a value of type bit_vector or std_logic_vector must be converted
to SIGNED or UNSIGNED before calling TO_INTEGER. This conversion (see also
Section 4.2.18) is necessary in order to determine the interpretation of the
most-significant bit of the vector:

variable int : integer;
variable bvec : bit_vector(0 to 7);
...
int := TO_INTEGER(UNSIGNED(bvec)); -- bvec is treated as a
-- unsigned magnitude
-- representation of an
-- integer value
int := TO_INTEGER(SIGNED(bvec)); -- bvec is treated as a
-- two's-complement
-- representation of an
-- integer value

TO_UNSIGNED and TO_SIGNED may be used to convert a integer value into a
corresponding signed or unsigned vector, as shown in the following example.
The second parameter to each function determines the size of the resulting
vector:

variable int : integer := 1;
variable unsigned_vec : UNSIGNED(0 to 7);
variable signed_vec : SIGNED(0 to 7);
...
unsigned_vec := TO_UNSIGNED(int, unsigned_vec'Length);
signed_vec := TO_SIGNED(int, signed_vec'Length);

A SIGNED or UNSIGNED value can be transformed into a std_logic_vector using
explicit conversion (see also Section 4.2.18 and Section 4.2.26). The
conversion from std_logic_vector (or std_ulogic_vector) to bit_vector is
done using function To_bitvector (from package ieee.std_logic_1164):

variable bvec : bit_vector(0 to 7);
variable slvec : std_logic_vector(0 to 7);
...
slvec := std_logic_vector(TO_UNSIGNED(int, slvec'Length));
bvec := to_bitvector(slvec);

Note: Synopsys has produced three packages: std_logic_arith,
std_logic_signed, and std_logic_unsigned that are intended to provide
functionality similar to numeric_bit and numeric_std. In particular, the
same two types, SIGNED and UNSIGNED are defined. Moreover, the packages
include functions to convert between vectors and integers. These packages
are typically even installed in the library IEEE. However, these packages
are NOT standard, and different vendors have different and mutually
incompatible versions. Also, there are naming clashes when some of these
packages are used together. So, it is recommended that numeric_bit or
numeric_std be used in preference to these non-standard packages.

See Section 4.11 for a more detailed discussion on arithmetic packages for
bit_vectors and std_logic_vectors.



4.2.26 How to Convert Between bit_vector, std_logic_vector,
std_ulogic_vector, signed and unsigned

In the package ieee.std_logic_1164 a set of functions to convert between
bit_vectors, std_logic_vectors and std_ulogic_vectors are defined. The
functions to transform either std_logic_vectors or std_ulogic_vectors to
bit_vectors are:

function To_bitvector(s : std_logic_vector; xmap : BIT := '0')
return bit_vector;

function To_bitvector(s : std_ulogic_vector; xmap : BIT := '0')
return bit_vector;

The std_(u)logic values '0' and 'L' are translated to bit value '0' while
'1' and 'H' are mapped to '1'. The translation of the remaining std_logic
values ('U', 'X', 'Z', '-' and 'W') is determined by parameter xmap (whose
default is '0').

The following two functions are provided to convert from std_logic_vector
and std_ulogic_vector to bit_vector:

function To_StdLogicVector(b : bit_vector)
return std_logic_vector;

function To_StdULogicVector(b : bit_vector)
return std_ulogic_vector;

An example showing the usage of these functions is:

variable slv_vec : std_logic_vector(0 to 7);
variable sulv_vec : std_ulogic_vector(0 to 7);
variable bvec : bit_vector(0 to 7);
...
slv_vec := To_stdlogicvector(bvec);
sulv_vec := To_stdulogicvector(bvec);
bvec := To_bitvector(slv_vec);
bvec := To_bitvector(sulv_vec);

Note that the types std_logic_vector, std_ulogic_vector, signed and unsigned
are all closely related to each other (see FAQ Part 4 - B.40 and Section
4.2.18). Hence, the explicit conversion can be used to transform the types
as needed--no conversion functions are, in fact required (although they are
provided by the packages std_logic_1164 and numeric_std). An example showing
the use of explicit conversion is:

variable slv_vec : std_logic_vector(0 to 7);
variable sulv_vec : std_ulogic_vector(0 to 7);
variable uns_vec : unsigned(0 to 7);
variable sgn_vec : signed(0 to 7);
...
slv_vec := std_logic_vector(sulv_vec);
sulv_vec := std_ulogic_vector(slv_vec);
slv_vec := std_logic_vector(uns_vec);
slv_vec := std_logic_vector(sgn_vec);
uns_vec := unsigned(slv_vec);
sgn_vec := signed(sulv_vec);
uns_vec := unsigned(sgn_vec);

Conversion from bit_vector to either signed or unsigned takes place in two
steps. First, the value must be converted to a std_logic_vector and then to
the target type (see also Section 4.2.25):

variable bvec : bit_vector(0 to 7);
variable uns_vec : unsigned(0 to 7);
variable sgn_vec : signed(0 to 7);
...
bvec := to_bitvector(std_logic_vector(uns_vec));
sgn_vec := to_unsigned(to_stdlogicvector(bvec));





4.2.27 Reduction Operators for Bit-Vectors

There is no predefined VHDL operator to perform a reduction operation on all
bits of vector (e.g., to "or" all bits of a vector). However, the reduction
operators can be easily implemented:

signal a : bit;
signal a_vec : bit_vector(0 to 10);
...
-- this concurrent assignment performs an "or"
-- reduction on "a_vec"
a <= '0' when (a_vec = (a_vec'range => '0')) else '1';

-- while this calculates an "and" reduction
a <= '1' when (a_vec = (a_vec'range => '1')) else '0';

Note that these approaches may not produce the same results as a chain of
or/and gates if the input vectors are of type std_(u)logic_vector and
contain other values than '0' or '1' (e.g., 'X' or 'Z'). For example, the
or-reduction approach will assign '1' to the output signal if at least one
element of the input vector is 'X'. However, if all other elements are '0'
the result should actually be 'X'.

A more general method (which also handles 'X' values correctly) is to loop
through the bits in the manner shown for an or-reduction operator on
std_logic_vectors:

function or_reduce( V: std_logic_vector )
return std_ulogic is
variable result: std_ulogic;
begin
for i in V'range loop
if i = V'left then
result := V(i);
else
result := result OR V(i);
end if;
exit when result = '1';
end loop;
return result;
end or_reduce;
...
b <= or_reduce( b_vec );

Finally, a package including various reduce operator functions (and_reduce,
or_reduce, xor_reduce, ...) can be downloaded from
http://vhdl.org/vi/vhdlsynth/reduce_pack.vhd.



4.2.28 Gray Code Counter Model

The following model implements a simple Gray code counter with adjustable
counter width (SIZE). For a more sophisticated model see Section 4.10.

entity gray_counter is
generic (SIZE : Positive range 2 to Integer'High);
port (clk : in bit;
gray_code : inout bit_vector(SIZE-1 downto 0));
end gray_counter;

architecture behave of gray_counter is
begin

gray_incr: process (clk)
variable tog: bit_vector(SIZE-1 downto 0);
begin
if clk'event and clk = '1' then
tog := gray_code;
for i in 0 to SIZE-1 loop
tog(i) := '0';
for j in i to SIZE-1 loop
tog(i) := tog(i) XOR gray_code(j);
end loop;
tog(i) := NOT tog(i);
for j in 0 to i-1 loop
tog(i) := tog(i) AND NOT tog(j);
end loop;
end loop;
tog(SIZE-1) := '1';
for j in 0 to SIZE-2 loop
tog(SIZE-1) := tog(SIZE-1) AND NOT tog(j);
end loop;
gray_code <= gray_code XOR tog;
end if;
end process gray_incr;

end behave;

Based on a posting by Rajkumar.



4.2.29 Is There a printf() Like Function in VHDL?

The easiest way to implement a similar functionality in VHDL is by using the
image attribute of VHDL-93. See Section 4.2.21 for further information.

For a package providing C-style formatted printing see Section 4.10.



4.2.30 How to Code a Clock Divider

The following example will divide the clock frequency of the "ClkIn" signal
by "Modulus" and output it on "ClkOut". It produces a symmetric output
waveform if "Modulus" is even, otherwise it stays low for one input clock
longer than it stays high (for a VHDL model with 50%-duty-cycle for odd
divisor rates see
http://www.e-insite.net/ednmag/archives/1997/081597/17di_01.htm; the
architecture of some "unusual" clock dividers is shown in
http://www.xilinx.com/xcell/xl33/xl33_30.pdf).

entity ClockDivider is
generic(Modulus: in Positive range 2 to Integer'High);
port(ClkIn: in bit;
Reset: in bit;
ClkOut: out bit);
end ClockDivider;

architecture Behavior of ClockDivider is
begin
process (ClkIn, Reset)
variable Count: Natural range 0 to Modulus-1;
begin
if Reset = '1' then
Count := 0;
ClkOut <= '0';
elsif ClkIn = '1' and ClkIn'event then
if Count = Modulus-1 then
Count := 0;
else
Count := Count + 1;
end if;
if Count >= Modulus/2 then
ClkOut <= '0';
else
ClkOut <= '1';
end if;
end if;
end process;
end Behavior;





4.2.31 How to Stop Simulation

In VHDL, simulation normally stops when there are no more pending events
(see FAQ Part 4 - B.88) anywhere in the system. Since, with the exception of
clocks, it is often the case that there are only a finite number of events
coded in a test bench, a simulation will naturally come to an end when all
input events are exhausted, provided that clocks do not run indefinitely. An
easy way to stop a clock is to use a clock enable signal. For example, here
is a small design entity that generates a clock that will run only for a
certain period of time:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
entity ClkGen is
port( ClkPd: in Time range 0 ns to Time'High;
RunTime: in TIme range 0 ns to Time'High;
ClkOut: out std_ulogic);
end ClkGen;

architecture Behavior of ClkGen is
signal ClkEna: std_ulogic := '1';
signal IntClk: std_ulogic := '0';
begin
ClkEna <= '0' after RunTime;
IntClk <= ClkEna and not IntClk after ClkPd/2;
ClkOut <= IntClk;
end Behavior;

This model generates a clock with a 50% duty cycle with period ClkPd that
runs only for the interval 0 ns <= T <= RunTime.

Sometimes this method is not convenient. For example, in the event of a
catastrophic error, simulation should come to an end immediately. In these
circumstances, it may be possible to use the following method. However,
there are some tool dependencies involved in its use.

A concurrent or sequential assert statement (see FAQ Part 4 - B.18) may be
used to stop simulation under model control. For instance a concurrent
assert statement to stop simulation might look like

assert not STOP_CONDITION
report "Simulation stopped"
severity failure;

where "STOP_CONDITION" is a Boolean expression which becomes true when the
simulation should stop. Note that "STOP_CONDITION" is re-evaluated only when
a signal included in the expression changes its value.

The assert statement may be also embedded into a process. However, in this
case the statement and the corresponding stop condition will be evaluated
only when the normal rules of process execution and sequential code flow
dictate. An example process which stops simulation after a fixed simulation
time limit has been reached is:

stop_sim: process
begin
wait for 1 ms; -- stop simulation after 1 ms
assert false
report "End simulation time reached"
severity failure;
end process;

A severity condition of failure is used in the example assert in order to
maximize the possibility that the simulation will stop when the
STOP_CONDITION is met. However, whether the simulation actually stops
depends on the simulator being used, and possibly on the switches used to
control the simulator. Some simulators have settings that allow one to
suppress the display of assert messages whose severity is less than a
certain value; other switches may exist to prevent halting on assertion
failures whose severity is less than a certain value. The proper setting of
these switches, if they exist in the tool used, is essential to the correct
functioning of this approach.

Finally, some simulators also provide means to control execution using
scripting engines (e.g., Tcl/Tk). However, solutions based on these features
are simulator dependent and hence not portable.



4.2.32 Ports of Mode Buffer

Ports of mode buffer (see FAQ Part 4 - B.183 and FAQ Part 4 - B.157) can be
both read and written. However, there is only a single source allowed to
drive any net containing a buffer port, and that source must be internal to
the port. While this restriction enables detection of unintended "multiple
driver" errors during compilation (see also Section 4.2.13), a flaw in their
definition makes them hard to use in the context of other designs. The
following example is illegal in VHDL'87 and VHDL'93 because a port of mode
out or inout must not be connected with a port of mode buffer:

entity SRLatch is
port( S, R: in bit;
Q, QBar: buffer bit); -- "Q" and "Qbar" are of
-- mode buffer!
end SRLatch;

architecture Structure of SRLatch is
component Nor2
port( I1, I2: in bit;
O: out bit); -- "O" is of mode out
end component;
begin
Q1: Nor2 port map (I1 => S, -- ok
I2 => QBar, -- ok
O => Q); -- illegal

Q2: Nor2 port map (I1 => R, -- ok
I2 => Q, -- ok
O => QBar); -- illegal
end Structure;

The component instantiation statements in this example are illegal because
port "O" of "Nor2" is of mode "out" and hence cannot be associated with a
buffer port. So, for the moment, the use of buffer ports may require that
multiple libraries of standard cells be defined, one with out ports, the
other with buffer ports. In most situations, this extra effort is not
justified and therefore the use of buffer ports is discouraged.

However, the unnecessary restrictions on buffer ports were removed in VHDL
2000, so that buffer ports are more useful now (if your tool supports VHDL
2000).



4.2.33 Multi-Dimensional Arrays

There is no upper bound on the dimensionality of arrays in VHDL.

Arrays (see FAQ Part 4 - B.15) with two or more dimensions can be
implemented in VHDL easily using a type declaration. For example, the type
declaration:

type two_dim_array is array(0 to 63, 0 to 7) of bit;

declares a two dimensional array with element type bit. A single array
element is addressed as follows:

signal sig : two_dim_array;
...
sig(0,0) <= sig(63,7); -- assign bit at index (63,7) to (0,0)

While a fully compliant VHDL tool can handle arrays with an arbitrary number
of dimensions, there are synthesis tools which accept only one- dimensional
arrays. However, usually these tools are able to synthesize arrays where
each element itself is an array. For example, instead of the two-dimensional
array of type bit shown above, one may implement an array of bit_vectors (a
one-dimensional array whose element type is itself a one-dimensional
array--an "array of arrays"):

subtype elem is bit_vector(0 to 7);
type array_of_bitvec is array(0 to 63) of elem;

Or even simpler:

type array_of_bitvec is array(0 to 63) of bit_vector(0 to 7);

Note that a one-dimensional array whose element type is itself a
one-dimensional array is indexed differently than the corresponding
two-dimensional array. For example, a single bit of the array or arrays
shown above is accessed using a sequence of two index values, each enclosed
in braces:

signal sig : array_of_bitvec;
...
sig(0)(0) <= sig(63)(7); -- assign bit at index (63,7) to (0,0)

Notice that the first index corresponds to the outermost type declaration.
Arrays are "row major" in VHDL, which is to say that "the last index varies
fastest" between adjacent elements.

Another advantage of this array of arrays technique is that an entire row
can now be accessed in a whole. For example, the following code assigns row
number 63 to row number 0 using a single assignment statement:

signal sig : array_of_bitvec;
...
sig(0) <= sig(63); -- assign bit 0 to 7 of row 63 to row 0

4.2.34 Multi-Dimensional Array Literals

In the previous section, we show that multi-dimensional arrays are different
from arrays of arrays; in particular, we noted that elements are accessed
using a different syntax.

However, there is one area where there is no difference between multi-
dimensional arrays and arrays of arrays: when constructing literal (see FAQ
Part 4 - B.144) values, there is no syntactical difference.

For example, consider the following set of type declarations, which might be
part of a simple, multi-valued logic type system:

type MVL is ('X', '0', '1', 'Z');

type resolveTableType1 is array (MVL, MVL) of MVL;

type MVL_Vector is array(MVL) of MVL;
type resolveTableType2 is array (MVL) of MVL_Vector;

Note that resolveTableType1 is a two-dimensional array of MVLs, while
resolveTableType2 is a one-dimensional array of a one-dimensional array of
MVLs.

However, objects of either type are initialized in an identical manner:

constant resTable1: resolveTableType1 :=
( -- 'X' '0' '1' 'Z'
('X','X','X','X'), -- 'X'
('X','0','X','0'), -- '0'
('X','X','1','1'), -- '1'
('X','0','1','Z') -- 'Z'
);

constant resTable2: resolveTableType2 :=
( -- 'X' '0' '1' 'Z'
('X','X','X','X'), -- 'X'
('X','0','X','0'), -- '0'
('X','X','1','1'), -- '1'
('X','0','1','Z') -- 'Z'
);

The first constant is of the two-dimensional array type, while the second
constant is of the one-dimensional array type whose element is of another
one-dimensional array. However, both are initialized as if they are of the
latter type!

Notice that the literal initializing either array is a four-element
aggregate (see FAQ Part 4 - B.7). Each element of the outer aggregate is
itself a four- element sub-aggregate (see FAQ Part 4 - B.232). The elements
of the sub-aggregates in all cases is a single MVL value.

Finally, notice that, once again, these arrays are row major. That is, to
get to the element that is in the second row and the third column, use the
following references:

resTable1('0','1')

in the case of the first array type, or

resTable2('0')('1')

in the case of the second array type.



4.2.35 Conditional Compilation

The generate statement combined with generic parameters or constants may be
used to achieve a behavior similar to "conditional compilation" in C. An
example is:

entity test is
generic (switch : boolean);
end if;

architecture struct of test is
begin
-- instantiate "adder1" if "switch" is true
First: if switch generate
Q: adder1 port map (...);
end generate;
-- instantiate "adder2" if "switch" is false
Second: if not switch generate
Q: adder2 port map (...);
end generate;
end behave;

Component "adder1" will be included into the design only if the generic
parameter "switch" is true. Otherwise, "adder2" is instantiated. Note that
the generate statement is "executed" at elaboration time (see FAQ Part 4 -
B.81), the entire architecture has to be analyzed by the compiler regardless
of the generate parameter value (note that the values of generic parameters
are unknown at compile time). Thus, syntactically or semantically incorrect
code inside of generate statements will be flagged, regardless of whether
the statements are ever elaborated. (As a consequence, both instantiation
statements in the example above must be legal.) Further, the generate
statement cannot be used to configure the interface of an entity; i.e., to
add or remove ports depending on the value of a generic parameter. However,
the sizes of array ports can be controlled through the use of generics.

In order to achieve the same functionality as the "#if" and "#ifdef"
constructs of C/C++, the macro processor of an ordinary C compiler may be
used. Usually, C compiler have a special command line switch to stop
compilation after the preprocessing stage (e.g., "-E" for the GNU C/C++
compiler). Hence, VHDL source code can be augmented with C macros or
"#ifdef...#endif" statements and then preprocessed with a C compiler before
it is compiled with a VHDL compiler. A "make" tool may help to automate this
two-stage approach.

Another solution is to use a special macro processor, like "m4", which is
available for most Unix platforms as well as for Windows (e.g., from
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~main/mingw32/; see also FAQ Part 3, Section
1.5).



4.2.36 Remarks on Visibility of Declarations

VHDL controls visibility of declarations using the notion of the scope of a
declaration. The name of a declaration is visible only within the scope of
the declaration (see FAQ Part 4 - B.212). (Note that a given declaration may
be hidden (see FAQ Part 4 - B.116) by another declaration in certain
circumstances.) The scope of a declaration extends from the beginning of the
declaration to the end of the innermost declarative region (see FAQ Part 4 -
B.56) containing the declaration. (E.g., a constant declared immediately
within a given architecture is visible from the end of the constant
declaration to the end of the architecture and also within any configuration
declaration configuring that architecture.) An example is:

process (sig)
constant A : integer := 100;
-- "A" becomes visible here and means this constant.
...

procedure Test is
-- "Test" becomes visible here and means this procedure.

constant B : bit := '1';
-- "B" becomes visible here and means this constant.
begin
...
end Test; -- "B" is no longer visible

begin
...
end process; -- "Test" and "A" are no longer visible

A declaration may be hidden from direct visibility (see FAQ Part 4 - B.74)
by another declaration, but it is always visible by selection, as shown in
the following example:

P: process (Sig)
constant A : integer := 100;
-- "A" becomes visible here and means this integer
constant.

procedure Test is
constant A : bit := '1';
-- "A" becomes visible here and means this bit constant.
-- Hence, "A" no longer means the integer constant.
-- However, the integer constant may be referred to as
"P.A"
variable Var : bit := A; -- "A" is of type bit
begin
if P.A > 50 then
Var := not A;
end if;
end Test; -- The bit "A" is no longer visible. Thus, "A"
-- once again means the integer constant.

variable Var : integer := A; -- "A" is of type integer
begin
Var := A + 1; -- "A" is of type integer
end process; -- "A" is no longer visible

In the above example the integer constant A was "visible by selection" as
"P.A" within the procedure Test, even though it is not directly visible
within this procedure. Note that the declarations within packages are always
visible by selection, as are the contents of libraries.

Use clause work by providing direct visibility of declarations that are
visible by selection. Such declarations must be within libraries or
packages. Note that there are cases where use clauses can cause conflicts in
visibility, either between two declarations that are visible by selection,
or between one directly visible declaration and another declaration that is
visible by selection. For example:

* A declaration made potentially visible by an use clause cannot hide a
declaration within the immediate scope of the second declaration:

package Pack is
constant A : integer := 100; -- A is of type integer
end package Pack;

entity Test is
end Test;

architecture Struct of Test is
constant A : bit := '1';
use WORK.Pack.all;

-- "WORK.Pack.A" is not directly visible here,
-- although it is still visible by selection as
-- "WORK.Pack.A"
signal Sig : bit := A; -- hence, this declaration is ok
begin
end Struct;

* If at a given point two or more conflicting declarations (with the same
name) has been made potentially directly visible by different use
clauses then none of the declarations are directly visible. An
exception to this rule are enumeration literals and subprograms. Note
that at a given point in the code the order of the corresponding use
clauses does not have an affect on which declaration is directly
visible.

Because of this mechanism the following code will not compile:

package Pack1 is
constant A : integer := 100; -- "A" is of type integer
end package Pack1;

package Pack2 is
constant A : bit := '1'; -- "A" is of type bit
end package Pack2;

entity Test is
end Test;

architecture Arch of Test is
use WORK.Pack1.all;
use WORK.Pack2.all;

-- neither "WORK.Pack1.A" nor "WORK.Pack2.A" is
-- directly visible

signal Sig1 : integer := A; -- ILLEGAL! "WORK.Pack1.A" is
-- not directly visible!
signal Sig2 : bit := A; -- ILLEGAL! "WORK.Pack2.A" is
-- not directly visible either!
begin
end Arch;

A simple solution to bypass visibility conflicts is to use selected names
(see FAQ Part 4 - B.213) to address a declaration within a specific package
or declarative region (see FAQ Part 4 - B.56). This approach works because
the names continue to be visible by selection. The following code
demonstrates how to apply this technique on the example shown above:

architecture Arch of Test is
signal Sig1 : integer := WORK.Pack1.A; -- ok
signal Sig2 : bit := WORK.Pack2.A; -- ok
begin
end Arch;





4.2.37 Difference between std_logic and std_ulogic

The type std_ulogic is an enumeration type defined in the package
IEEE.std_logic_1164. The type std_logic is a subtype of std_ulogic. Both are
intended to model scalar logical values in ASICs and FPGAs.

As the 'u' in meant to convey, std_ulogic is an unresolved type. That is, it
may be driven by a maximum of one source. Conversely, std_logic is a
resolved (sub)type (see FAQ Part 4 - B.204), which means it may be driven by
any number of sources. Resolved (sub)types have resolution functions
associated with them--the resolution function (see FAQ Part 4 - B.202))
associated with the subtype std_logic, called resolved, is also defined in
the package IEEE.std_logic_1164.

The fact that std_logic is a subtype of std_ulogic means that operations and
assignments on values and objects of type std_logic and std_ulogic may be
freely intermixed and no type conversion (see FAQ Part 4 - B.243) is
necessary. An example showing this usage of both types is:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
architecture Arch of Test is
signal unres_sig : std_ulogic := '0'; -- unresolved signal
signal res_sig : std_logic := '0'; -- resolved signal
begin
-- this concurrent signal assignment is a source for
unres_sig
unres_sig <= not res_sig;

-- this process is a source for res_sig
p: process (res_sig)
begin
res_sig <= not unres_sig;
end process;

-- this concurrent signal assignment
-- is a second source for res_sig
res_sig <= '1' when control = '1' else 'Z';
end Arch;

Since "res_sig" has multiple sources (see FAQ Part 4 - B.223), it must be of
a resolved type. However, since "unres_sig" has but a single source, it may
be of either a resolved or unresolved type.

In addition to the scalar logical types std_logic and std_ulogic, there are
vector types defined in IEEE.std_logic_1164. One, a resolved type, is called
std_logic_vector. It is defined as a one-dimensional, unconstrained array of
std_logic elements. The other, an unresolved type, is called
std_ulogic_vector and is defined as a one-dimensional, unconstrained array
of std_ulogic elements. Unlike the case of the scalar types std_logic and
std_ulogic (where std_logic is a subtype of std_ulogic) the types
std_logic_vector and std_ulogic vector are distinct types. (This difference
comes about because of the details of VHDL's type system.) Consequently,
care must be taken when intermixing std_logic_vector and std_ulogic_vector
values and objects in expressions and assignments.

Ideally, all signals in a model should be declared using the unresolved
types std_ulogic or std_ulogic_vector (depending on whether a scalar or
vector signal is needed), except those signals that are to be multiply
driven; for example, tristate busses. In that case, the types std_logic and
std_logic_vector should be used as appropriate.

If this policy is adhered to, then signals that are multiply driven in error
will be caught by either the analyzer or elaborator, depending on the exact
circumstances. For example, consider the following model:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
architecture Arch of Test is
component comp
port (a : in std_ulogic);
end component;

signal sig : std_ulogic := '0'; -- unresolved signal
begin
-- a source for signal sig
sig <= not sig;

c: comp port map( a => sig );
end Arch;

The component comp contains a port of mode in. Hence, the instance c of this
component does not create a source for the signal sig.

Should the mode of the port a be inadvertently changed to out, inout or
buffer, the instance c then becomes an additional source for the signal sig.
Since we took care to define "sig" to be of an unresolved type, this will be
flagged prior to simulation start.

However, if we had instead declared "sig" to be of type std_logic, it would
now be legal to multiply drive "sig", and no error would be reported by the
tools. Instead, careful examination of waveforms and inspection of the model
would be required to locate the problem.

(Sections 4.2.13 and 4.2.14 contain additional information on signal sources
and drivers.)

Unfortunately, at least until recently, not all tools provided good support
for std_ulogic and std_ulogic_vector. As a consequence, before deciding
whether to follow our recommendation, you must take a look at your tools and
determine whether they adequately support std_ulogic and std_ulogic_vector.

Typically, simulators are not the problem, it's the synthesis tools that
might lack full support for the unresolved types. Consider a RTL model that
uses std_ulogic_vectors as interface (port) signals and an appropriate
testbench to stimulate the design. Often, the gate level model that is
generated by the synthesis tool from this RTL description will use
std_logic_vectors as port types. As a result, the gate level model cannot
directly be connected with the testbench without using type conversion.





4.2.38 VHDL and Synthesis

Synthesis is the automatic process to generate hardware (gates, flipflops,
latches and the like) from a formal description (e.g., VHDL). A synthesis
tool translates the HDL source code into a net of hardware primitives. The
primitives are defined by the target technology (e.g., FPGA or ASIC) and
vendor. Ideally, using VHDL for synthesis decouples the design process from
the actual target technology, vendor and synthesis tool chain. In this
manner, a design expressed in VHDL can, in theory, be easily retargeted to
another technology vendor or synthesis tool.

In reality, different synthesis tools will usually generate identical
hardware only for simple VHDL models. Tightening the synthesis constraints
(e.g., on required operating speed, power consumption or device count) will
often require tool-specific modifications to the VHDL source in order to
meet the constraints. Because of this fact, to obtain similar results from
different synthesis tools, one must typically modify the VHDL source when
moving from one tool to another.

While a significant part of the VHDL language can be synthesized, there are
constructs that cannot be handled by today's synthesis tools. Some of the
restrictions are simply due to a the lack of corresponding counterparts in
hardware (e.g., report statements and files). Other restrictions are due to
the fact that all statements of a synthesisable VHDL description must
ultimately be statically mapped to a set of corresponding hardware
primitives. Currently, each synthesis tool supports a different subset of
the VHDL standard. This situation should be temporary, as there is an effort
underway to develop a layered set of synthesis interoperability standards
(see http://www.eda.org/siwg/ for further information).

The following list discusses a number of issues related to synthesis that
show up frequently in comp.lang.vhdl:

* After clauses.

After clauses in signal assignment statements are not synthesised as
there is no hardware primitive that has a fixed but settable delay.
(Usually the delay varies significantly with temperature, supply
voltage, output loading and the like). In the best case they are
ignored by the synthesis tool. Hence, the statement

sig <= not sig after 10 ns;

will not result in an inverter with a 10 ns delay. Most likely, an
inverter will be synthesized, but no attempt is made to adhere to the
delay specification.

* Processes sensitive to both edges of a clock.

Processes which perform operations on both edges of a clock are usually
not synthesisable as there are no flipflops that are sensitive to both
edges of a single signal (at least these type of flipflops are
currently rarely available). For example, the following process is not
synthesisable:

p: process (clk)
begin
counter <= counter + 1;
end process;

The process runs on all edges of clk, so the hardware representing this
process would be required to increment "counter" on both clock edges.
Such devices do not exist.

However, the following process is synthesisable as it increments
"counter" on rising clock edges only (note that the simulator will
actually execute the process on both edges but 'useful' operations are
done on rising edges only):

p: process (clk)
begin
if clk'event and clk = '1' then -- select only rising edges
counter <= counter + 1;
end if;
end process;

* Non-static loop bounds and slice ranges.

Loop bounds and the bounds of array slices (see FAQ Part 4 - B.222)
must be static (see FAQ Part 4 - B.226 and Section 4.2.39); i.e. they
must be determinable and fixed at elaboration time. Synthesis tools
unroll loops and generate hardware from the linearized code,
substituting a fixed value for the loop index in each iteration. Such
unrolling requires that the synthesis tool know precisely how many
times the loop is to be executed and what the value of the loop index
is in each iteration. Hence, the loop:

for i in 0 to 7 loop
...
end loop;

is synthesisable, but the following loop is not:

variable var : integer;
...
for i in 0 to var loop
...
end loop;

* Mixing sequential and combinational logic into one process/FSM coding
style.

Whether it is better to separate code into processes with synchronous
elements in one and processes with combinational logic in the other or
combining both parts into a single process is actually a matter of
style and taste. An example for a Moore state machine (without the
output logic part) designed with two processes is:

state_reg:
process (clk, reset)
begin
if reset = '1' then
current_state <= state1; -- reset action
elsif rising_edge(clk) then
current_state <= next_state;
end if;
end process;

next_state:
process (current_state, ctrl)
begin
case current_state is
when state1 =>
if ctrl = '1' then
next_state <= state1;
else
next_state <= state2;
end if;
when state2 =>
next_state <= state3;
when state3 =>
next_state <= state1;
end case;
end process;

The same state machine, coded with a single process, is:

combined:
process (clk, reset)
begin
if reset = '1' then
current_state <= state1; -- reset action
elsif rising_edge(clk) then
case current_state is
when state1 =>
if ctrl = '1' then
current_state <= state1;
else
current_state <= state2;
end if;
when state2 =>
current_state <= state3;
when state3 =>
current_state <= state1;
end case;
end if;
end process;

Note that the output logic part of the FSM is not listed here.

The advantages of the two processes style are:
o Some synthesis tools perform better with the two processes
approach.
o Many feel that the two process style is more readable. However,
this is also a matter of taste and may be dependent on the design
details.
o The two process approach is recommended in most VHDL textbooks as
well as by many synthesis tool vendors.
The advantages of the single process style are:
o A single process generally simulates faster than two processes.
Again, this is tool dependent and may vary with the actual design.
o A single synchronous process is less error prone to missing
signals in the sensitivity list as only the clock signal along
with any (re)set signal(s) are in the sensitivity list. Note that
in order to infer combinational logic from a process, all signals
read inside the process must appear in the sensitivity list.





4.2.39 Locally and Globally Static

In VHDL a locally static expression can be evaluated at compile time (see
also FAQ Part 4 - B.147). Similarly, the value of a globally static
expression can be determined at elaboration time (see also FAQ Part 4 -
B.108 and FAQ Part 4 - B.81); i.e. when the design hierarchy in which it
appears is elaborated. In detail, there is a set of rules that determine
whether an expression is locally static, globally static or not static. A
summary of the most important rules is given in the following (for the
complete detailed description see the LRM).

An expression is said to be locally static if it is

* a literal (see FAQ Part 4 - B.144) of any type other than type time
(i.e. 10, '0', and true are all locally static, while 10 ns is not)
* a constant that is initialized by a locally static expression (i.e.,
deferred constants are not locally static)
* a call to an implicitly predefined operator which returns a scalar
value and whose parameters are scalar and locally static

An expression is said to be globally static if it is

* a locally static expression (i.e., locally static expressions are also
globally static)
* a generic constant (see FAQ Part 4 - B.106) or a generate parameter
(see FAQ Part 4 - B.105)
* an array aggregate (see FAQ Part 4 - B.7) whose element associations
are globally static (i.e., the expressions and the ranges of its
element associations must be globally static)
* a record aggregate (see FAQ Part 4 - B.7) whose element associations
are globally static
* a slice (see FAQ Part 4 - B.222) of a globally static array, provided
that the range of the slice is globally static
* a call to a pure function (see FAQ Part 4 - B.191) whose parameters are
all globally static

In addition, a globally static expression, subtype, type, or range must
appear in a statically elaborated context.

For example, consider the following model:

entity Test is
port (port_bit : in bit);
generic (gen_bit : bit);
end Test;

architecture Structure of Test is
constant a : bit := '1'; -- locally static
constant b : bit := '1' and '0'; -- locally static
constant c : bit := gen_bit; -- globally static

constant d : bit_vector(0 to 3) := "0000"; -- locally static
constant e : bit_vector(0 to 1) := d(0 to 1); -- globally s.
constant f : bit := vec(0); -- globally static

pure function test1 (constant p : bit) return bit is
begin
return not p;
end test;
constant g : bit := test1('1'); -- globally static

impure function test return bit is
begin
return not a;
end test;
constant h : bit := test2; -- NOT static

begin
...
end Structure;

Note that constants "e" and "f" are globally but not NOT locally static
because slices of an array or references to array elements are not locally
static (even if the array is locally static). Constant "g" is globally (and
NOT locally) static because the initial value contains a call to a user
defined (pure) function.

The choices of a case statement are required to be locally static (see also
Section 4.2.15). This enables compile time checking to ensure that all
alternatives are actually covered by the choices. Hence, the following will
NOT compile:

entity test is
generic (gen : bit_vector(0 to 1) := "00");
end test;

architecture erroneous of test is
signal sig : bit_vector(0 to 1);
constant a : bit_vector(0 to 3) := "0100";
constant b : bit_vector(0 to 1) := a(0 to 1);-- globally s.
constant c : bit_vector(0 to 1) := '1' & '0';-- globally s.
constant d : bit_vector(0 to 1) := a(1) & a(1);-- globally s.
begin
...
case sig is
when gen => ... -- error: "gen" is not locally static!
when b => ... -- error: "b" is not locally static!
when c => ... -- error: "c" is not locally static!
when d => ... -- error: "d" is not locally static!
end case;
...
end erroneous;

VHDL does not require the compiler to evaluate slices (or references to
array elements) at compile time. Hence, "b" and "d" cannot be used as
choices. This raises some difficulties when constant arrays or records are
used to increase readability of the source code. An example is:

type rec is record is
value : integer;
flag : boolean;
end record;

constant c_rec : rec := (value => 32, flag => true);
constant c_value : integer := rec.value; -- globally s.
constant c_flag : boolean := rec.flag; -- globally s.

Due to the LRM rules, constants "c_value" and "c_flag" are only globally
static and hence cannot be used as choices within a case statement.
Fortunately, "reversing" the constant definitions resolves the problem:

type rec is record is
value : integer;
flag : boolean;
end record;

constant c_value : integer := 32; -- locally static!
constant c_flag : boolean := true; -- locally static!
constant c_rec : rec := (value => c_value, flag => c_flag);





4.2.40 Arithmetic Operations on Bit-Vectors

VHDL has no predefined arithmetic operators for bit_vectors or
std_logic_vectors predefined. This situation exists as VHDL does not assume
the interpretation to be applied to such vectors.

Instead, the following data types can be used in synthesizable designs to
represent numbers:

* INTEGER: Type INTEGER (see FAQ Part 4 - B.134) can be used for objects
that do not overflow. However, they must be constrained properly to
prevent the synthesis tool from inferring 32- bit wide buses or
registers (unless, of course, a full 32 bits are needed).

-- synthesis tool will use 3 bits to represent
-- signals "int1" and "int2"
signal int1, int2 : integer range 0 to 7;
...
int1 <= int2 + int2;
int2 <= int1 + 1;

As VHDL does not provide any mechanisms to directly set or extract
single bits of a scalar object manipulation of integers at bit level is
tedious. (Again, this apparent lack stems from the fact that VHDL does
not assume any particular representation of integers.)

* SIGNED/UNSIGNED: The types SIGNED and UNSIGNED are vector types based
on either of the scalar types bit or std_logic (type std_logic is
defined in the package "IEEE.std_logic_1164") and hence support
bit-level manipulation.

The types based on bits are found in the package IEEE.numeric_bit, and
the types based on std_logic are found in IEEE.numeric_std. Of the two,
the numeric_std types are the more commonly used:

type UNSIGNED is array (NATURAL range <>) of STD_LOGIC;
type SIGNED is array (NATURAL range <>) of STD_LOGIC;

Each package defines these types along with a set of logical and
mathematical operators. SIGNED vectors represent two's- complement
integers, while UNSIGNED vectors represent unsigned- magnitude
integers. In each case, the MSB is to the right.

The operators defined in these packages allow mathematical operations
on SIGNED and UNSIGNED vectors and on mixed type operations with either
SIGNED or UNSGINED on the one hand and INTEGERs on the other. However,
note that UNSIGNED and SIGNED vectors cannot be directly mixed in the
same expression. Fortunately, as both types (as well as
std_logic_vectors) are closely related to each other (see FAQ Part 4 -
B.40), predefined conversion functions (see FAQ Part 4 - B.50 and
Section 4.2.18) can be applied to change the type of a vector as
required. Note that the bit pattern of a vector is not changed during
conversion. I.e., an UNSIGNED number will become negative after
conversion to SIGNED if the most significant bit is set.

An example illustrating the above is:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.std_logic_1164.all;
use IEEE.numeric_std.all;
...
signal udata1, udata2, udata3 : UNSIGNED(0 to 3);
signal sdata1, sdata2, sdata3 : SIGNED(3 downto 0);
signal slv : std_logic_vector(3 downto 0);
...
udata3 <= udata1 + udata2; -- arithmetic operation "+"
sdata1 <= sdata2 and sdata3; -- logical operation "and"

sdata1(2) <= sdata2(1); -- set/read single bit

sdata2 <= SIGNED(udata1); -- "udata1" must be converted to
SIGNED
sdata3 <= SIGNED(slv); -- "slv" must be converted to SIGNED
slv <= std_logic_vector(sdata2); -- "sdata1" must be converted
-- to std_logic_vector

Methods to convert between integer on the one hand and bit_vector,
std_(u)logic_vector, SIGNED, or UNSIGNED on the other are described in
Section 4.2.25.

There are also other numeric packages provided by different vendors. Some
even provide arithmetic operations for std_logic_vectors. However, it is
recommended that you use "numeric_std" whenever possible (see Section 4.11
for further information).

Finally, VHDL also provides floating point numbers (see FAQ Part 4 - B.100).
However, as they are currently not synthesizable (this is going to change;
see the Floating-Point HDL Packages Home Page at http://www.eda.org/fphdl/)
their usage is restricted to testbenches or similar model types.



4.2.41 VHDL'93 Generates Different Concatenation Results from VHDL'87

Certain VHDL tools report that the VHDL'93 concatenation operator generates
different results from the same operator in VHDL'87. This section describes
the differences. The operator "&" may be used to concatenate one-dimensional
arrays (or their elements) to form a new array consisting of the elements of
the left operand followed by the elements of the right operand. An example
is

constant c1 : bit_vector(0 to 3) := "1101";
constant c2 : bit_vector(0 to 3) := "0010";

-- value of "c3" is "11010010"
constant c3 : bit_vector(0 to 7) := c1 & c2;

-- value of "c4" is "11101"
constant c4 : bit_vector(0 to 4) := '1' & c1;

-- value of "c5" is "01"
constant c5 : bit_vector(0 to 1) := '0' & '1';

Note that the concatenation operator may be also used to concatenate an
array element with an array (see "c4") or two array elements (see "c5").

Due to a flaw in the definition of VHDL'87 the result of a concatenation may
produce illegal array bounds. In VHDL 87 the left bound of the result is the
left bound of the left operand, unless it is a null array (an array of
length 0; see also FAQ Part 4 - B.165), in which case it is the left bound
of the right operand. The direction of the result is derived from the left
and right operand in a similar fashion. Consider the following sequence

type r is 0 to 7;
type r_vector is array (r <> range) of bit;

constant k1 : r_vector(1 downto 0) := "10";
constant k2 : r_vector(0 to 1) := "01";

constant k3 : r_vector := k2 & k1;
constant k4 : r_vector := k1 & k2;

According to the VHDL'87 rules for concatenation, the left bound of constant
"k3" is 0 and the right bound is 3. Similarly, the left bound of "k4" is 1
while the right bound is -2. Obviously, the right bound of "k4" is illegal
as it is not within the range defined by type "r".

To fix this problem in VHDL'93 the corresponding rules has been modified: if
both operands are null arrays, then the result of the concatenation is the
right operand. Otherwise, the direction and bounds of the result are
determined from the the index subtype of the base type of the result. The
direction and the left bound of the result are taken from the index subtype
while the right bound is calculated based on the left bound, the direction
and the length of the array.

In the previous example the index subtype of the base type of "k3" and "k4"
is "r". Hence, the left bounds of "k3" and "k4" are set to 0 and the
directions are "to". Finally, the right bounds of both constants equals to 0
+ length of array - 1 = 0 + 4 - 1 = 3:

k3'left k3'right k4'left k4'right

VHDL'87 0 3 1 -2

VHDL'93 0 3 0 3

Note that the resulting sequence of bits is the same in either case. The
only difference between the operators is in the construction of the index
bounds of the result.

So, as long as the index values of the result don't go out of bounds, and
the code using the concatenation does not depend on specific index values of
the result (which is a bad idea in any case), the differences between the
VHDL'87 and VHDL'93 concatenation operators are of no concern. In fact, the
differences are precisely to avoid the condition where the index values
needlessly go out out bounds.



4.2.42 rising_edge(clk) versus (clk'event and clk='1')

In general, there are two ways in VHDL to describe edge sensitive elements
(we assume that signal "clk" is of type std_logic):

* The expression

clk'event and clk = '1'

returns true if signal "clk" has a transition and its new value is '1'.
If the previous value of "clk" is '0', then this expression correctly
detects a rising edge. However, any transition that ends at '1' will be
considered as a rising edge. Hence, changes from 'H' (weak '1') to '1'
will return true while transitions from '0' to 'H' evaluate to false.
As a result, "clk'event and clk = '1'" is only save if "clk" toggles
between '0' and '1'.
* rising_edge (clk)

is defined in package std_logic_1164 and returns true if signal "clk"
has a rising transition (to detect a falling edge use "falling_edge").
The function is implemented as follows:

function rising_edge (signal s : std_ulogic) return boolean is
begin
return (s'event and (To_X01(s) = '1') and
(To_X01(s'last_value) = '0'));
end;

It uses the function "To_X01" to compare the current and previous value
of "clk" making it more robust against "unusual" clock values. "To_X01"
maps 'H' to '1' and 'L' to '0'. Hence, rising_edge also returns true
for transitions from '0' to 'H' and returns false for transitions from
'H' to '1' (as well as changes from 'X' to '1').

For synthesis, there is usually no difference between both alternatives as
the synthesis tool assumes that transitions on clock signals are "clean"
(i.e., clock signals toggle between '0' and '1' only). However, for
simulation it is more save to use "rising_edge" (or "falling_edge").



4.3 What do I Need to Generate Hardware from VHDL Models

Usually, VHDL is used to describe digital designs that are either programmed
into FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) or integrated into ASICs
(application-specific integrated circuits) to perform a specific function.
In order to build (or, in case of FPGAs, program) a chip, several tools are
needed:

* Simulation tool

The first step in designing a circuit that concerns us is describing
its intended behavior in VHDL. This initial model may or may not be
described in synthesizable VHDL (a subset of the entire VHDL language),
but the description must eventually be refined until it uses only
synthesizable VHDL prior to synthesis. But, how does one determine
whether the described model reflects the intended behavior?

A tool called a simulator is used to simulate the model in order to
verify that the description is working as intended. (It is usually not
the case that the model is correct when first described.) Note that at
this stage the simulator only simulates the VHDL model and not the real
circuit. I.e., the behavior of the model and the hardware that is
finally generated from it may differ in ways that may be significant.
(There are other tools and methods to detect such problems; see below).

In addition to the VHDL model of the circuit to be developed, a
"testbench" should also be coded. The purpose of the testbench is to
provide an environment that generates appropriate input to the model
and that also checks its output. Unlike the circuit model, the
testbench does not have to be synthesizable. Hence, all language
features can be used to describe it (e.g., file read and write
operations to log input to and output of the circuit).

While some FPGA vendors provide "home grown" simulators along with a
tool chain to program their devices, these tools typically do note
contain a full-language VHDL simulator. In particular, they are not
capable of running arbitrary testbenches. Hence, for any real design
task a separate VHDL simulation tool is typically required. A list of
simulators can be found in Part 3 Section 2 of this document.

* Synthesis tool

Synthesis tools accept a synthesizable VHDL description and generates a
netlist consisting of logic primitives (gates, flipflops, latches,
etc.). While a significant part of the VHDL language can be
synthesized, there are constructs and combinations of constructs that
cannot be handled by today's synthesis tools. Some of the restrictions
are due to a lack of corresponding counterparts in hardware (e.g.,
report statements and files). Other restrictions are due to the fact
that all statements of a synthesizable VHDL description must ultimately
be statically mapped to a set of corresponding hardware primitives.
Note that the VHDL subset supported for synthesis differs between
synthesis tools. There is, however, a common subset definition, IEEE
Std 1076.6, in progress.

Synthesis is a complex and resource-consuming process, one that might
return results not intended by the designer. A common problem is that
synthesis tools and (unexperienced) designers might differ in the
interpretation of a specific sequence of VHDL statements as hardware.
There are two main approaches to determine whether the synthesized
netlist matches the functionality of the VHDL description:

o Simulate the synthesized netlist (gate-level simulation)

In most cases this can be also done using a VHDL simulator. An
advantage of this approach is that the testbench can be re-used
with the synthesized circuit. The same or similar test patterns
can also be applied to the gate level model to verify that it has
response identical to the original model.

Unfortunately, gate level simulation can be rather slow. As a
consequence, it may not be possible to run the entire suite of
tests, so detecting differences via this approach may not be
reliable.

o Use a equivalence checker to formally prove that synthesizable
model and netlist are functionally equivalent.

Depending on the circuit structure and complexity, this approach
might work well or not. It does, however, require the purchase and
use of a separate (and expensive) tool.

* Implementation tools

The synthesis tool creates a (more or less) device-independent
description of the circuit. Another tool chain is required to map the
primitives used in the netlist to resources in the physical device
(FPGA or ASIC). This mapping occurs during "implementation".
Implementation tools for FPGAs are usually provided by the FPGA vendor.

In addition to a description that can be downloaded to the FPGA or sent
to the appropriate IC foundry (in case of an ASIC design), the
implementation tools also generate a detailed timing model from the
circuitry. A timing model consists of gate-level primitives augmented
with detailed delay information and can be used to verify the timing
behavior of the synthesized circuit, in a process called "timing
verification." (This model could also be used to verify the the
functional behavior of the synthesized circuit, but this use may be
inefficient).

The purpose of timing verification is to ensure that the circuit meets
all timing constraints (clock frequency, setup and hold times of
flipflops, ...). There are two main techniques for timing verification:

o Timing simulation

Timing simulation can be also performed by a VHDL simulation tool.
Unfortunately, timing simulation is typically very slow and
resource intensive. Further, good coverage is very dependent on
the stimuli provided; poor choices can lead to timing violations
remaining undiscovered.

o Static timing analysis

When doing synchronous or "mostly" synchronous designs (the main
design methodology in use today), timing may be also verified
using a static timing analyzer. This tool conservatively analyzes
all paths within the design to locate the most critical (longest)
one. From this analysis, the maximum clock frequency and other
timing properties are derived.

Timing analysis is an conservative approach (i.e., it may report
timing violations that are not, in actuality, present in the real
device). However, the tradeoff is that such analysis usually
requires significantly less computational effort when compared to
simulation. Hence, it is the main technique for timing
verification (at least in case of synchronous or mostly
synchronous designs) in use today. Nevertheless, some designers
prefer to run a final timing simulation to double-check the
results obtained from static timing analysis. Note that FPGAs
vendors usually provide a static timing analysis tools along with
their implementation tool chain.

While this should give a rough overview on what is needed to design circuits
using a VHDL based design flow, it is by no way an exact and exhaustive
description of all tools that may be required and all problems that may be
encountered. ASIC design flows, especially, are sometimes far more complex
than described here. Hence, please refer to vendor documentation or
appropriate literature for further information.

4.4 PUBLIC DOMAIN Tools?

Actually as far as I know, there is only few PD software on VHDL. If you
know about something, please let us know. See products posting for more
detailed information.

4.5 VHDL Validation Suite Available?

Yes. The latest version of the test validation suite is available via
anonymous ftp://vhdl.org/pub/validation/vi_suite.tar.Z The current suite
covers 36% of VHDL-1987. See http://www.vhdl.org/validation/ for further
information.

See also FAQ Part 3, Section 1.5

4.6 Status of Analog VHDL (VHDL-AMS, 1076.1)

The IEEE Standard 1076.1-1999 (Analog and Mixed-Signal Extensions to VHDL)
has been approved on March 18, 1999 and the 1076.1 Language Reference Manual
is available from the IEEE. VHDL 1076.1-1999 is a strict extension of VHDL
1076-1993, i.e. it includes the full VHDL 1076-1993 language. Extensions
have been carefully designed to maintain the existing philosophy and to
smoothly integrate new language definitions.

There is a free VHDL-AMS (Analog and Mixed Signal) simulator/compiler called
SEAMS available. See part 3, Section 3.1 for further information on SEAMS.

4.7 How Can People Get More Information about VHDL-AMS (1076.1)

The 1076.1 study group is maintaining an email bulletin board for
distribution of announcements and as a forum for technical discussions. see
above (official contacts).

4.8 Standards and Standard Packages

Actually as far as I know no complete list with addresses of all documents
exists. In general it's a good idea to look at http://www.eda.org/. Or check
out the vhdl.org ftp server, fetch the most actual version of the groups
list: /pub/docs/groups.txt (see also Official Contacts ... above). The short
names listed there are usually also used as directory names at vhdl.org -
just look for /pub/. Somewhere below your chance to find the actual working
documents is very good.

If someone has a partial or complete list, please send it to the author.
I'll incorporate it here, if possible. Here is, what I have:

* The IEEE 1164 std_logic package (std_logic_1164):
o version 4.3 (including proposed extensions to 1993):
http://www.vhdl.org/vi/libutil/s1164_93/s1164_93.vhd
o version 4.2:
http://vhdl.org/vi/libutil/utilities/gen_functions/IEEE1164
* VHDL 1076.3 Bit Logic based synthesis package (numeric_bit; available
from the IEEE). Version 2.4 of numeric_bit can be found at:
http://www.eda.org/rassp/vhdl/models/standards/numeric_bit.vhd
* VHDL 1076.3 Std_Logic_1164 based synthesis package (numeric_std;
available from the IEEE). Version 2.4 of numeric_std can be found at:
http://www.eda.org/rassp/vhdl/models/standards/numeric_std.vhd
* VITAL '95 Packages: http://vhdl.org/vi/vital/
* WAVES 1997 Packages:
http://vhdl.org/vi/waves/wwwpages/packages_1997.html
* IEEE MATH_REAL Package (DRAFT!) containing log, sin,...:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/packages/mathpack/mathpack.vhd
The final version can be ordered from the IEEE:
http://standards.ieee.org/catalog/design.html#1076.2-1996

4.8.1 Functions and Operators Defined in Package numeric_std

There are two IEEE-standard packages that provide functionality to handle
bit vectors as coded numeric values. The types/functions based on bits are
found in the package IEEE.numeric_bit, and the types/functions based on
std_logic are found in IEEE.numeric_std. Of the two, numeric_std is the more
commonly used.

Both packages (see Section 4.8 on how to get these packages) define two new
vector types: SIGNED and UNSIGNED. SIGNED vectors represent two's-complement
integers, while UNSIGNED vectors represent unsigned-magnitude integers.

Note: Synopsys produced another set of packages named std_logic_arith,
std_logic_signed, and std_logic_unsigned that are intended to provide
functionality similar to numeric_bit and numeric_std. In particular, the
same two types, SIGNED and UNSIGNED are defined. These packages are
typically even installed in the library IEEE. However, these packages are
NOT standard, and different vendors have different and mutually incompatible
versions. Also, there are naming clashes when some of these packages are
used together. So, it is recommended that numeric_bit or numeric_std be used
in preference to these non-standard packages.

In order to help designers making best use of numeric_std the following
tables lists operators and functions defined in this package. In particular,
the tables list

* function or operator name
* first parameter type
* type of an optional second parameter
* return type
* some additional remarks

In order to save space type names in the table are abbreviated as follows

type name abbreviation remarks

integer int
natural nat integer >= 0; subtype of integer
boolean bool
bit_vector bvec
std_ulogic sul
std_ulogic_vector sulv
std_logic sl resolved subtype of sul
std_logic_vector slv
unsigned uns
signed sgn

The function and operators are clustered into groups "logical operators",
"arithmetic operators", "compare operators", "/rotate functions",
"conversion functions" and "miscellaneous functions":

* Logical operators:

operator 1st par 2nd par return remarks

and sgn sgn sgn bitwise and
and uns uns uns bitwise and

nand sgn sgn sgn bitwise nand
nand uns uns uns bitwise nand

or sgn sgn sgn bitwise or
or uns uns uns bitwise or

nor sgn sgn sgn bitwise nor
nor uns uns uns bitwise nor

xor sgn sgn sgn bitwise xor
xor uns uns uns bitwise xor

xnor sgn sgn sgn bitwise xnor
xnor uns uns uns bitwise xnor

not sgn sgn bitwise not
not uns uns bitwise not

* Arithmetic Operators:

Note that the arithmetic operators return "XX...X" if at least one of
their parameters contain values other than '0', '1', 'L' or 'H.

operator 1st 2nd return remarks
par par

abs sgn sgn absolute value
- sgn sgn change sign

+ uns uns uns unsigned add; length of result =
max(length of 1st par, length of 2nd
par)
+ sgn sgn uns signed add (two's-complement); length
of result = max(length of 1st par,
length of 2nd par)
+ uns nat uns add an uns with a non-negative int;
length of result = length of 1st par
+ nat uns uns add an uns with a non-negative int;
length of result = length of 2nd par
+ sgn int sgn add a sgn with an int; length of
result = length of 1st par
+ int sgn sgn add a sgn with an int; length of
result = length of 2nd par

- uns uns uns unsigned subtract; length of result =
max(length of 1st par, length of 2nd
par)
- sgn sgn uns signed subtract (two's-complement);
length of result = max(length of 1st
par, length of 2nd par)
- uns nat uns subtract a non-negative int from an
uns; length of result = length of 1st
par
- nat uns uns subtract an uns from a non-negative
int; length of result = length of 2nd
par
- sgn int sgn subtract an int from a sgn; length of
result = length of 1st par
- int sgn sgn subtract a sgn from an int; length of
result = length of 2nd par

* uns uns uns unsigned multiply; length of result =
length of 1st par + length of 2nd par
- 1
* sgn sgn sgn signed multiply (two's-complement);
length of result = length of 1st par
+ length of 2nd par - 1
* uns nat uns multiply a non-negative int with an
uns; nat is converted to uns (length
= length of 1st par) before
multiplication; length of result = 2
* (length of 1st par) - 1
* nat uns uns multiply an uns with a non-negative
int; nat is converted to uns (length
= length of 2nd par) before
multiplication; length of result = 2
* (length of 2nd par) - 1
* sgn int sgn multiply an int with a sgn
(two's-complement); int is converted
to sgn (length = length of 1st par)
before multiplication; length of
result = 2 * (length of 1st par) - 1
* int sgn sgn multiply a sgn with an int
(two's-complement); int is converted
to sgn (length = length of 2nd par)
before multiplication; length of
result = 2 * (length of 2nd par) - 1

/ uns uns uns unsigned divide; resulting uns has
same length as 1st par
/ sgn sgn sgn signed divide; resulting sgn has same
length as 1st par
/ uns nat uns divide an uns by a non-negative int;
resulting uns has same length as 1st
par
/ nat uns uns divide a non-negative int by an uns;
resulting uns has same length as 2nd
par
/ sgn int sgn divide an sgn by an int; resulting
sgn has same length as 1st par
/ int sgn sgn divide an int by a sgn; resulting sgn
has same length as 2nd par

rem uns uns uns unsigned rem; resulting uns has same
length as 1st par
rem sgn sgn sgn signed rem; resulting sgn has same
length as 1st par
rem uns nat uns compute 1st par rem 2nd par;
resulting uns has same length as 1st
par
rem nat uns uns compute 1st par rem 2nd par;
resulting uns has same length as 2nd
par
rem sgn int sgn compute 1st par rem 2nd par;
resulting sgn has same length as 1st
par
rem int sgn sgn compute 1st par rem 2nd par;
resulting sgn has same length as 2nd
par

mod uns uns uns unsigned mod; resulting uns has same
length as 1st par
mod sgn sgn sgn signed mod; resulting sgn has same
length as 1st par
mod uns nat uns compute 1st par mod 2nd par;
resulting uns has same length as 1st
par
mod nat uns uns compute 1st par mod 2nd par;
resulting uns has same length as 2nd
par
mod sgn int sgn compute 1st par mod 2nd par;
resulting sgn has same length as 1st
par
mod int sgn sgn compute 1st par mod 2nd par;
resulting sgn has same length as 2nd
par

* Compare operators:

operator 1st par 2nd par return remarks
uns uns bool compare greater than; returns false
if parameter contain values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
sgn sgn bool compare greater than; returns false
if parameter contain values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
uns nat bool compare greater than; returns false
if 1st par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
nat uns bool compare greater than; returns false
if 2nd par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
sgn int bool compare greater than; returns false
if 1st par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
int sgn bool compare greater than; returns false
if 2nd par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'

< uns uns bool compare less than; returns false if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
< sgn sgn bool compare less than; returns false if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
< uns nat bool compare less than; returns false if
1st par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
< nat uns bool compare less than; returns false if
2nd par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
< sgn int bool compare less than; returns false if
1st par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
< int sgn bool compare less than; returns false if
2nd par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'

<= uns uns bool compare less equal; returns false
if parameter contain values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
<= sgn sgn bool compare less equal; returns false
if parameter contain values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
<= uns nat bool compare less equal; returns false
if 1st par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
<= nat uns bool compare less equal; returns false
if 2nd par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
<= sgn int bool compare less equal; returns false
if 1st par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
<= int sgn bool compare less equal; returns false
if 2nd par contains values other
than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= uns uns bool compare greater equal; returns
false if parameter contain values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= sgn sgn bool compare greater equal; returns
false if parameter contain values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= uns nat bool compare greater equal; returns
false if 1st par contains values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= nat uns bool compare greater equal; returns
false if 2nd par contains values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= sgn int bool compare greater equal; returns
false if 1st par contains values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= int sgn bool compare greater equal; returns
false if 2nd par contains values
other than '0', '1', 'L', 'H'

= uns uns bool compare equal; returns false if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= sgn sgn bool compare equal; returns false if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
= uns nat bool compare equal; returns false if 1st
par contains values other than '0',
'1', 'L', 'H'
= nat uns bool compare equal; returns false if 2nd
par contains values other than '0',
'1', 'L', 'H'
= sgn int bool compare equal; returns false if 1st
par contains values other than '0',
'1', 'L', 'H'
= int sgn bool compare equal; returns false if 2nd
par contains values other than '0',
'1', 'L', 'H'

/= uns uns bool compare not equal; returns true if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
/= sgn sgn bool compare not equal; returns true if
parameter contain values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
/= uns nat bool compare equal; returns true if 1st
par contains values other than '0',
'1', 'L', 'H'
/= nat uns bool compare not equal; returns true if
2nd par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
/= sgn int bool compare not equal; returns true if
1st par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'
/= int sgn bool compare not equal; returns true if
2nd par contains values other than
'0', '1', 'L', 'H'

* Shift/rotate functions:

function 1st 2nd return remarks
par par

shift_left uns nat uns 1st par left by 2nd par bit
positions; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
shift_right uns nat uns 1st par right by 2nd par bit
positions; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
shift_left sgn nat sgn 1st par left by 2nd par bit
positions; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
shift_right sgn nat sgn 1st par left by 2nd par bit
positions; vacated positions are
filled with leftmost bit of sgn
(sign extension)

rotate_left uns nat uns rotate 1st par left by 2nd par
bit positions
rotate_right uns nat uns rotate 1st par right by 2nd par
bit positions
rotate_left sgn nat sgn rotate 1st par left by 2nd par
bit positions
rotate_right sgn nat sgn rotate 1st par left by 2nd par
bit positions

* Shift/rotate operators:

Note that these operators are not compatible with VHDL'87.

operator 1st par 2nd par return remarks

sll uns int uns shifts left 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
shifts right; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
srl uns int uns shifts right 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
shifts left; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
sll sgn int sgn shifts left 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
shifts right; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
srl sgn int sgn shifts right 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
shifts left; vacated positions are
filled with '0'
rol uns int uns rotates left 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
rotates right
ror uns int uns rotates right 1st par by 2nd par
bit positions if 2nd par >=0,
otherwise rotates left
rol sgn int sgn rotates left 1st par by 2nd par bit
positions if 2nd par >=0, otherwise
rotates right
ror sgn int sgn rotates right 1st par by 2nd par
bit positions if 2nd par >=0,
otherwise rotates left

* Conversion functions:

function 1st par 2nd par return remarks

To_Integer uns nat convert uns to nat
To_Integer sgn int convert sgn to int
To_Unsigned nat nat uns convert nat (1st par) to uns;
2nd par defines bit width of
result
To_Signed int nat sgn convert int (1st par) to sgn;
2nd par defines bit width of
result

Note that UNSIGNED and SIGNED (as well as std_logic_vectors) are
closely related to each other (see FAQ Part 4 - B.40). Hence,
predefined conversion functions (see Section 4.2.40, FAQ Part 4 - B.50
and Section 4.2.18) can be applied to change the type of a vector as
required. For a table of conversion functions defined in
ieee.std_logic_1164 and ieee.numeric_std see also
http://www.ce.rit.edu/pxseec/VHDL/Conversions.htm.

* Translation functions:

function 1st 2nd return remarks
par par

To_01 uns sl uns termwise translation of 1st par; '1'
or 'H' are translated to '1', and
'0' or 'L' are translated to '0'; if
a value other than '0'|'1'|'H'|'L'
is found (others => 2nd par) is
returned
To_01 sgn sl sgn termwise translation of 1st par; '1'
or 'H' are translated to '1', and
'0' or 'L' are translated to '0'; if
a value other than '0'|'1'|'H'|'L'
is found (others => 2nd par) is
returned

* Miscellaneous functions:

function 1st 2nd return remarks
par par

resize uns nat uns resize 1st par to the bit width
specified by the 2nd par; any new
[leftmost] bit positions are filled
with '0'
resize sgn nat sgn resize 1st par to the bit width
specified by the 2nd par; any new
[leftmost] bit positions are filled
with sign bit (left most bit of 1st
par); when truncating the sign bit
is retained

std_match sul sul bool compare terms per std_logic_1164
intent; see Section 4.2.9
std_match slv slv bool compare termwise per std_logic_1164
intent; see Section 4.2.9
std_match sulv sulv bool compare termwise per std_logic_1164
intent; see Section 4.2.9
std_match uns uns bool compare termwise per std_logic_1164
intent; see Section 4.2.9
std_match sgn sgn bool compare termwise per std_logic_1164
intent; see Section 4.2.9

4.9 Where to Obtain the comp.lang.vhdl FAQ

http://vhdl.org/comp.lang.vhdl/

4.10 "Frequently Requested" Models/Packages

Not all models shown here are really frequently requested but I did not find
a better place to list them.

* Not synthesizable random number generators:
o http://www.eda.org/rassp/vhdl/models/math.html
o http://vhdl.org/vi/vhdlsynth/
o Package ieee.math_real includes a random generator. While this
package is not freely available usually each commercial VHDL
compiler comes with a pre-compiled version of it. The random
generator procedure is named "UNIFORM" and returns a pseudo random
real number with uniform distribution in the interval 0.0 to 1.0:

procedure UNIFORM (variable Seed1,Seed2: inout integer;
variable X:eek:ut real);

* Linear feedback registers/LFSR (often used as synthesizable pseudo
random bit stream generator; less good for generating random integers):
o http://www.vhdlcohen.com/
o See Xlinix application note XAPP 052:
http://www.xilinx.com/xapp/xapp052.pdf
o A LFSR generator tool: http://www.logiccell.com/~jean/LFSR/
* Arithmetic models/packages
o Math package (log, sin, cos ...; not synthesizable): see Section
4.8
o A synthesizable function that returns the integer part of the base
2 logarithm for a positive number is (uses recursion; posted by
Tuukka Toivonen):

function log2 (x : positive) return natural is
begin
if x <= 1 then
return 0;
else
return log2 (x / 2) + 1;
end if;
end function log2;

Another synthesizable log2 function using a while loop is
(original posted by Ray Andraka; modified by editor):

function log2 (x : positive) return natural is
variable temp, log: natural;
begin
temp := x / 2;
log := 0;
while (temp /= 0) loop
temp := temp/2;
log := log + 1;
end loop;
return log;
end function log2;

Note that these functions are not intended to synthesize directly
into hardware, rather they are used to generate constants for
synthesized hardware.
o A web based Arithmetic Module Generator for High Performance VLSI
Designs (customizable core generator for various arithmetic
functions): http://modgen.fysel.ntnu.no/
o Commercial floating point arithmetic cores from Digital Core
Design: http://www.dcd.com.pl/
o An IEEE-754 synthesizable floating point core by Jamil Khatib
(alpha status):
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/6639/ip/fpu/
o Floating point arithmetic models from Hiroaki Yamaok:
http://flex.ee.uec.ac.jp/~yamaoka/vhdl/index.html
o Floating point models (behavior level):
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/hlsynth/HLSynth95/HLSynth95/complete/
o Commercial floating point IP cores from Dillon Engineering, Inc.:
http://www.dilloneng.com/ipcores/fpoint/index.html
o Synthesizable floating point arithmetic packages from the IEEE
1076.3 working group: http://www.eda.org/fphdl/
o Synthesizable fixed point arithmetic packages written by David
Bishop: http://www.vhdl.org/vhdlsynth/proposals/dave_p3.html
o Free CORDIC core (COordinate Rotation on a DIgital Computer) from
OPENCORES.ORG: http://www.opencores.org/cores/cordic/
o Commercial CORDIC core from Digital Core Design:
http://www.digitalcoredesign.com/
* Models of the DLX RISC processor:
o http://www.cs.adelaide.edu.au/users/petera/designers-guide/DG.html
o http://www.eda.org/rassp/vhdl/models/processor.html
o ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/vhdl/DLXS-P.beta/
o A superscalar version of the DLX processor:
http://www.rs.e-technik.tu-darmstadt.de/TUD/res/dlxdocu/SuperscalarDLX.html
* Other processor models:
o AX8, a free core compatible with 90S1200 and 90S2313:
http://hem.passagen.se/dwallner/vhdl.html
o ERC32 (a fully functional, timing accurate model of a
radiation-tolerant SPARC V7 processor version):
http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/erc32/
o LEON-1 (a synthesisable SPARC compatible (integer) processor):
http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/erc32/ or http://www.gaisler.com/
o Dalton Project (a synthesizable VHDL Model of the 8051
microcontroller): http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~dalton/i8051/
o Free behavioral model of the 8051 microcontroller (provided by
Alatek): http://www.alatek.com/
o Commercial 8051 compatible cores from Digital Core Design:
http://www.dcd.com.pl/
o T51 mcu, a free 8052 compatible core:
http://www.opencores.org/projects/t51/
o Another 8051 compatible IP Core: http://www.oregano.at/ip/8051.htm
o A simple (and incomplete) behavioral model of the Intel 80386
microprocessor:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
o Free-6502 (a 6502 compatible CPU core):
http://www.free-ip.com/6502/index.html
o A simple (and incomplete) behavioral model of the Motorola 68000
microprocessor:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html or
http://www.eej.ulst.ac.uk/tutor/m68000.html
o Commercial 68000 compatible core from Digital Core Design:
http://www.dcd.com.pl/
o Another commercial 68000 compatible core from VLSI Concepts:
http://www.vlsi-concepts.com/V68000.html
o A model of the AMD 2901:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
o A structural synthesisable model of the PIC16C5x microcontroller:
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
o Another synthesisable model of the PIC 16C5X microcontroller:
http://www.mindspring.com/~tcoonan/
o PPX16, a free core compatible with 16C55 and 16F84:
http://hem.passagen.se/dwallner/vhdl.html
o CQPIC, another free PIC16F84 compatible processor core:
http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~morioka/cqpic.htm
o A RISC micro controller core (PIC16C5x compatible):
http://www.anslab.co.kr/
o RISC5x, a PIC compatible core from from OPENCORES.ORG:
http://www.opencores.org/projects/risc5x/
o A limited version of the 6805 processor (from the book 'Digital
System Design Using VHDL' by Charles Roth; see app_d.vhd and
app_e.vhd): http://www.brookscole.com/engineering/roth.html
o Another 6805 core:
http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~elliott/ee552/studentAppNotes/2000_w/vhdl/6805/
o Bobcat16 (a programmable 16-bit fixed point DSP core):
http://www.dreyent.com/
o A 320c25 compatible digital signal processor core from Digital
Core Design: http://www.dcd.com.pl/
o GM HC11 CPU Core, a synthesizable VHDL implementation of the HC11
CPU: http://www.gmvhdl.com/hc11core.html
o MSL16, a CPU optimised to run Forth programs:
http://www.cs.cuhk.edu.hk/~phwl/msl16/msl16.html
o T80, a free core compatible with Z80:
http://hem.passagen.se/dwallner/vhdl.html
o JAM, a 32bit 5 stage pipelined RISC core with forwarding and
hazard handling (basic design is derived from the DLX
architecture):
http://www.etek.chalmers.se/~e8johan/concert02/index.html
o XiRISC, an extensible RISC core: http://xirisc.deis.unibo.it/
o A minimal 8 bit VHDL CPU designed for a 32 macrocell CPLD:
http://www.tu-harburg.de/~setb0209/cpu/mcpu.html
o MicroCore, a simple micro controller core targeting FPGAs:
http://www.microcore.org/index.html
o uP1232, a 8-bit FPGA-based microprocessor core:
http://www.dte.eis.uva.es/OpenProjects/OpenUP/index.htm
o DRAGONFLY microprocessor core:
http://www.leox.org/resources/dvlp.html
o An 8-bit Stack Processor:
http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/rc/Papers/8bitprocessor/stackproc.html
o JOP - Java Optimized Processor:
http://www.jopdesign.com/download.jsp
* Gray code counter:
o Gray counter with variable width:
http://www.isibrno.cz/~ivovi/vhdl.htm
o See also Section 4.2.28
* I2C-bus interface:
o http://www.opencores.org/
o http://www.corepool.com/ (commercial)
o See Xilinx application note XAPP 333:
http://www.xilinx.com/xapp/xapp333.pdf
o Digital Core Design: http://www.dcd.com.pl/ (commercial)
* UART models (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter):
o Ben Cohens web site: http://members.aol.com/vhdlcohen/vhdl
o The RASSP www site: http://www.eda.org/rassp/vhdl/models/bus.html
o GoodKook's VHDL site: http://www.anslab.co.kr
o Serial UART Controller from the OPENCORES.ORG project web site:
http://www.opencores.org/cores/uart/
* PCI-bus interface:
o PLD Applications (commercial): http://www.plda.com/
o Xlinix, Inc. (commercial; for Xilinx FPGAs):
http://www.xilinx.com/ipcenter/
o Phoenix Technologies (commercial): http://www.vchips.com/
o MaxLock, Inc (commercial): http://www.maxlock.com/
* CAN controller core: ftp://ftp.estec.esa.nl/pub/ws/wsd/CAN/can.htm
* CRC and BCH encoder, Reed Solomon encoder/decoder, Viterbi
encoder/decoder, LDPC decoder:
o Tools to generate (synthesizable) CRC and BCH encoders, Reed
Solomon encoders/decoders are available from the MOBIS Forward
Error Correction Page:
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/mobis/products/fec_old/content.html
o CRC Tool from easics is a free web tool that can be run
interactively to generate synthesizable VHDL code for any
polynomial and any data input width (within reasonable limits)
over the web: http://www.easics.com/webtools/crctool
o Another tool to generate VHDL CRC code:
http://www.geocities.com/steve0192/vhdl.htm
o Viterbi encoder/decoder for the (22,8,6) block code:
http://www-ee.eng.hawaii.edu/~pramod/ee628/viterbi.html
o Viterbi Decoder from OPENCORES.ORG:
http://www.opencores.org/cores/viterbi/
o CRC generator tool from Alan Coppola: http://www.nwlink.com/~ajjc
o Another CRC generator tool from NoBug Consulting, Inc.:
http://www.nobugconsulting.ro/crc.php
o Confluence LDPC Decoder:
http://www.opencores.org/projects/cf_ldpc/
* Memory models/cores:
o Microsystems Prototyping Laboratory Static RAM (SRAM) Generation
Tool:
http://www.erc.msstate.edu/research/labs/mpl/distributions/vhdl/html/tools/sramgen/index.html
o RAM models from Micron Semiconductor Products, Inc. (SRAM, DRAM,
SDRAM, DDR SGRAM, ...): http://www.micron.com/mti
o The Hamburg VHDL archive (SRAM, DRAM, EPROM):
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/vhdl/vhdl.html
o OpenIP Project models (single/dual port memory core, DRAM):
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/6639/openip/
o Free-RAM core form the Free-IP Project: http://www.free-ip.com/
o Asynchronous FIFO core from Siemens:
http://www.is.siemens.de/itps/eda/englisch/main1183832.htm
o Memory cores from Jamil Khatib (FIFO, dual/single port memories):
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/6639/ip/memory_cores.html
or http://www.opencores.org/
o AMD flash models: http://www.eda.org/fmf/fmf_public_models/amd/
o Intel flash models:
http://appzone.intel.com/toolcatalog/list.asp?architecture=1&tooltype=Modeling/Simulation
o Samsung Electronics models (graphics memories, flash):
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/support_index.html
* Encryption/Decryption
o Free-DES (a basic DES encryption/decryption core) from the Free-IP
Project: http://www.free-ip.com/
o A encryption/decryption core using DES and RSA (University of
Stuttgart; documentation is mostly in German language):
http://www.ra.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/~stankats/
o VHDL models developed by NSA to evaluate the hardware performance
of the AES finalists:
http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/round2/r2anlsys.htm
o Blowfish Implementation in VHDL (by Wesley J. Landaker):
http://blowfishvhdl.sourceforge.net/
* SDRAM-Controller:
o SDRAM Controller from the OPENCORES.ORG project web site:
http://www.opencores.org/cores/sdram/
* Printing
o Formatted printing: A package (PCK_FIO) providing C-style
formatted printing is availabe from
http://www.easics.com/method/inhouse.html
o "image_pb.vhd" includes functions to create string representations
of vectors (bit_vector, std_ulogic_vector, std_logic_vector,
signed, unsigned): http://members.aol.com/vhdlcohen/vhdl/
o Package "ieee.std_logic_textio" from Synopsys includes procedures
to read/write std_logic, std_ulogic_vector, std_logic_vector
values (including from/to hex and octal):
http://members.aol.com/vhdlcohen/vhdl/vhdlcode/stdtxtio.vhd
* Miscellaneous
o A package that makes use of the ieee.numeric_std package, and
provides overloaded functions and operators a la Synopsys Unsigned
package (by Ben Cohen): http://www.vhdlcohen.com/
o Free FIR Filter core from OPENCORES.ORG:
http://www.opencores.org/cores/fir/
o Free VGA/LCD Controller core from OPENCORES.ORG:
http://www.opencores.org/cores/vga_lcd/
o A package containing various functions to convert between
hex/decimal/octal/binary strings and std_logic(_vector)/natural:
http://www.eda.org/fmf/fmf_public_models/packages/conversions.vhd

4.11 Arithmetic Packages for bit/std_logic-Vectors

The IEEE did not, originally, define a standard set of types and overloaded
functions to handle vectors which contained coded numeric values. This meant
that individual vendors were free to define their own types and functions.

Synopsys produced three packages - std_logic_arith, std_logic_signed, and
std_logic_unsigned. std_logic_signed/std_logic_unsigned operated on type
std_logic_vector, and gave an implicit meaning to the contents of the
vector. std_logic_arith, however, defined two new types, SIGNED and
UNSIGNED, and operated on these types only. Unfortunately, Synopsys decided
that these packages should be compiled into library IEEE. Other vendors,
including Cadence and Mentor, now produced their own versions of
std_logic_arith, which were not the same as Synopsys's. They also required
their packages to be placed in library IEEE.

Finally, the IEEE decided to standardize this situation, and produced
packages numeric_bit and numeric_std (see Section 4.8 on how to obtain
numeric_bit and numeric_std). numeric_bit is based on type bit, numeric_std
on on type std_logic. Both packages followed Synopsys in defining new types,
SIGNED and UNSIGNED. However, the package functions did not have the same
names, or parameters, as the Synopsys functions.

Currently many vendors support numeric_bit/numeric_std. Hence, for maximum
portability, avoid using a package called std_logic_signed or
std_logic_unsigned, and always use SIGNED or UNSIGNED types (or integers)
for arithmetic. If you are using Synopsys, use std_logic_arith, and if you
are not using Synopsys, use numeric_std (if it is supported). This is not
completely portable, since the functions are still different (for example,
TO_UNSIGNED vs. CONV_UNSIGNED), but it is a lot better than using different
types in different environments.

Partially extracted from an article by Evan Shattock.

4.12 Where Can I Find More Info

Of course, there are the other three parts of this FAQ.

Other good starting points are http://www.vhdl.org/docs/groups.txt or
Section 3. VHDL on the Web.

If other resources should be listed here, please let me know.
 

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