Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Reconfigurable Computing (EN2911X, Fall07) Lecture 07: Verilog (3/3) Prof. Sherief Reda Division of Engineering, Brown University

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Behavioral modeling Last lecture we started behavioral modeling  Focus on synthesizable subset of Verilog  Understood the difference between always and initial  Understood the difference between blocking and nonblocking assignments  Explained event-based control timing  Explained conditional statements: if and else  Explained multi-way branching: case  Explained looping statements: while, for and repeat

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Hierarchical naming As described, every module instance, signal, or variable is identified with an identifier. Each identifier has a unique place in the design hierarchy. Hierarchical name referencing allows us to denote every identifier in the design hierarchy with a unique name. A hierarchical name is a list of identifiers separated by dots “.” for each level of hierarchy Examples: stimulus.q, stimulus.m1.Q, stimulus.m1.n2

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Named blocks Blocks can be given names –Local variables can be declared from the names block –Variables in a named block can be accessed by using hierarchical name referencing –Named blocks can be disabled … always begin : block1 integer i; i=1; … end … always begin : block2 integer j; j = block1.i^1; end

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Disabling named blocks The keyword disable provides a way to terminate the execution of a named block. Disable can be used to get out of loops, handle error conditions, or control execution of pieces of code based on control signal Disabling a block causes the execution control to be passed to the statement immediately succeeding the block initial begin i=0; flag=8’b0010_0101; begin: block1 while (i < 16) begin if (flag[i]) disable block1; i = i+1; end

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Tasks and functions Often it is required to implement the same functionality at many times in a behavioral design. Verilog provides tasks and functions to break up large behavioral code into smaller pieces. Tasks and functions are included in the design hierarchy. Like named blocks, tasks and functions can be addressed by means of hierarchical names. Tasks have input, output and inout arguments Functions have input arguments Tasks and functions are included in the design hierarchy. Like named blocks, tasks or functions can be addressed by means of hierarchical names

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Tasks Tasks are declared with the keywords task and endtask. Tasks can have input, inout, and output arguments to pass values (different than in modules). Tasks or functions can have local variables but cannot have wires. Tasks and functions can only contain behavioral statements. Tasks and functions do not contain always or initial statements but are called from always blocks, initial blocks, or other tasks and functions. Can operate directly on reg variables defined in the module module … … always begin BOP (AB_AND, AB_OR, AB_XOR, A, B); BOP (CD_AND, CD_OR, CD_XOR, C, D); end task BOP; output [15:0] ab_and, ab_or, ab_xor; input [15:0] a, b; begin ab_and = a & b; ab_or = a | b; ab_xor = a ^ b; end endtask … endmodule

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Difference between module and task instantiation Instantiated modules create duplicate copies in hardware. In contrast tasks are static in nature. All declared items are statically allocated and they are shared across all uses of the task. If a task is called form within a behavioral block, only one copy is needed However, a task/function might be called concurrently form different behavioral blocks, which can lead to incorrect operation → avoid by using the automatic keyword to make a task re-entrant module … … always BOP (AB_AND, AB_OR, AB_XOR, A, B); always BOP (CD_AND, CD_OR, CD_XOR, C, D); task automatic BOP; output [15:0] ab_and, ab_or, ab_xor; input [15:0] a, b; begin ab_and = a & b; ab_or = a | b; ab_xor = a ^ b; end endtask … endmodule

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Functions Functions are typically used for combinational modeling (use for conversions and commonly used calculations. Need at least one input argument but cannot have output or inout arguments. The function is invoked by specifying function name and input arguments, and at the end execution, the return value is placed where the function was invoked Functions cannot invoke other tasks; they can only invoke other functions. Recursive functions are not synthesizable module … … reg [31:0] parity; begin parity = calc_parity(addr); end // you can declare C sytle function calc_parity; input [31:0] address; begin calc_parity = ^address; end endfunction … endmodule

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Example: clock display on DE2 Last lecture we had a simple example of a 1 second blinking LED Let’s generalize it to a clock display seconds HEX1 HEX0 minutes HEX3 HEX2

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Task to display digits task digit2sev(input integer digit, output [6:0] disp); begin if (digit == 0) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 1) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 2) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 3) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 4) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 5) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 6) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 7) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 8) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 9) disp = 7'b ; end endtask

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University One way module clock(CLOCK_50, HEX0, HEX1, HEX2, HEX3); output reg [6:0] HEX0, HEX1, HEX2, HEX3; input CLOCK_50; integer count=0; reg [3:0] d1=0, d2=0, d3=0, d4=0; CLOCK_50) begin count=count+1; if (count == 50_000_000) begin count=0; d1 = d1+1; if(d1 == 10) begin d1 = 0; d2 = d2+1; if(d2 == 6) begin d2 = 0; d3 = d3 + 1; if(d3 == 10) begin d3 = 0; d4 = d4 + 1; if(d4 == 6) d4 = 0; end digit2sev(d1, HEX0); digit2sev(d2, HEX1); digit2sev(d3, HEX2); digit2sev(d4, HEX3); end task digit2sev; … endtask endmodule

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Resource utilization is 152 LEs

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Second code module clock(CLOCK_50, HEX0, HEX1, HEX2, HEX3); input CLOCK_50; output reg [6:0] HEX0, HEX1, HEX2, HEX3; integer count=0; reg [15:0] ticks=16'd0; reg [5:0] seconds=6'd0, minutes=6'd0; initial display_time(seconds, minutes); CLOCK_50) begin count = count+1; if (count == 50_000_000) begin count=0; ticks = ticks + 1; seconds = ticks % 60; minutes = ticks / 60; display_time (seconds, minutes); end

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University task display_time(input [5:0] s, input [5:0] m); begin digit2sev(s%10, HEX0); digit2sev(s/10, HEX1); digit2sev(m%10, HEX2); digit2sev(m/10, HEX3); end endtask task digit2sev(input integer digit, output [6:0] disp); begin if (digit == 0) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 1) disp = 7'b ; else if (digit == 2) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 3) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 4) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 5) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 6) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 7) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 8) disp = 7'b ; else if(digit == 9) disp = 7'b ; end endtask endmodule HEX3 HEX2 HEX1 HEX0

Reconfigurable Computing S. Reda, Brown University Resource utilization for 2 nd code Circuit consumes 611 LEs (2% of the chip logic resources). You have to be careful! Changing ticks, seconds and minutes to integer increases area to become 2500 LEs (8% of the utilization)