Lecture #28 Page 1 ECE 4110– Sequential Logic Design Lecture #28 Agenda 1.Counters Announcements 1.HW #13 assigned 2.Next: Test #2 Review

Lecture #28 Page 2 Counters Counters in VHDL - strong type casting in VHDL can make modeling counters difficult (at first glance) - the reason for this is that the STANDARD and STD_LOGIC Packages do not define "+", "-", or inequality operators for BIT_VECTOR or STD_LOGIC_VECTOR types

Lecture #28 Page 3 Counters Counters in VHDL - there are a couple ways that we get around this 1) Use the STD_LOGIC_UNSIGNED Package - this package defines "+" and "-" functions for STD_LOGIC_VECTOR - we can use +1 just like normal - the vector will wrap as suspected ( ) - one catch is that we can't assign to a Port - we need to create an internal signal of STD_LOGIC_VECTOR for counting - we then assign to the Port at the end

Lecture #28 Page 4 Counters Counters in VHDL using STD_LOGIC_UNSIGNED use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_UNSIGNED.ALL; -- call the package entity counter is Port ( Clock : in STD_LOGIC; Reset : in STD_LOGIC; Direction : in STD_LOGIC; Count_Out : out STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (3 downto 0)); end counter;

Lecture #28 Page 5 Counters Counters in VHDL using STD_LOGIC_UNSIGNED architecture counter_arch of counter is signal count_temp : std_logic_vector(3 downto 0);-- Notice internal signal begin process (Clock, Reset) begin if (Reset = '0') then count_temp <= "0000"; elsif (Clock='1' and Clock'event) then if (Direction='0') then count_temp <= count_temp + '1'; -- count_temp can be used on both LHS and RHS else count_temp <= count_temp - '1'; end if; end process; Count_Out <= count_temp; -- assign to Port after the process end counter_arch;

Lecture #28 Page 6 Counters Counters in VHDL 2) Use integers for the counter and then convert back to STD_LOGIC_VECTOR - STD_LOGIC_ARITH is a Package that defines a conversion function - the function is: conv_std_logic_vector (ARG, SIZE) - functions are defined for ARG = integer, unsigned, signed, STD_ULOGIC - SIZE is the number of bits in the vector to convert to, given as an integer - we need to keep track of the RANGE and Counter Overflow

Lecture #28 Page 7 Counters Counters in VHDL using STD_LOGIC_ARITH use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_ARITH.ALL; -- call the package entity counter is Port ( Clock : in STD_LOGIC; Reset : in STD_LOGIC; Direction : in STD_LOGIC; Count_Out : out STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (3 downto 0)); end counter;

Lecture #28 Page 8 Counters Counters in VHDL using STD_LOGIC_ARITH architecture counter_arch of counter is signal count_temp : integer range 0 to 15;-- Notice internal integer specified with Range begin process (Clock, Reset) begin if (Reset = '0') then count_temp <= 0; -- integer assignment doesn't requires quotes elsif (Clock='1' and Clock'event) then if (count_temp = 15) then count_temp <= 0; -- we manually check for overflow else count_temp <= count_temp + 1; end if; end process; Count_Out <= conv_std_logic_vector (count_temp, 4);-- convert integer into a 4-bit STD_LOGIC_VECTOR end counter_arch;

Lecture #28 Page 9 Counters Counters in VHDL 3) Use UNSIGNED data types #'s - STD_LOGIC_ARITH also defines "+", "-", and equality for UNSIGNED types - UNSIGNED is a Data type defined in STD_LOGIC_ARITH - UNSIGNED is an array of STD_LOGIC - An UNSIGNED type is the equivalent to a STD_LOGIC_VECTOR type - the equality operators assume it is unsigned (as opposed to 2's comp SIGNED) Pro's and Cons - using integers allows a higher level of abstraction and more functionality can be included - easier to write unsynthesizable code or code that produces unwanted logic - both are synthesizable when written correctly

Lecture #28 Page 10 Counters Ring Counters in VHDL - to mimic the shift register behavior, we need access to the signal value before and after clock'event - consider the following concurrent signal assignments: architecture …. begin Q0 <= Q3; Q1 <= Q0; Q2 <= Q1; Q3 <= Q2; end architecture… - since they are executed concurrently, it is equivalent to Q0=Q1=Q2=Q3, or a simple wire

Lecture #28 Page 11 Counters Ring Counters in VHDL - since a process doesn't assign the signal values until it suspends, we can use this to model the "before and after" behavior of a clock event. process (Clock, Reset) begin if (Reset = '0') then Q0<='1'; Q1<='0';Q2<='0'; Q3<='0'; elsif (Clock'event and Clock='1') then Q0<=Q3;Q1<=Q0;Q2<=Q1;Q3<=Q2; end if; end process - notice that the signals DO NOT appear in the sensitivity list. If they did the process would continually execute and not be synthesized as a flip-flop structure

Lecture #28 Page 12 Counters Johnson Counters in VHDL process (Clock, Reset) begin if (Reset = '0') then Q0<='0'; Q1<='0';Q2<='0'; Q3<='0'; elsif (Clock'event and Clock='1') then Q0<=not Q3;Q1<=Q0;Q2<=Q1;Q3<=Q2; end if; end process

Lecture #28 Page 13 Counters Linear Feedback Shift Register Counters in VHDL process (Clock, Reset) begin if (Reset = '0') then Q0<='0'; Q1<='0';Q2<='0'; Q3<='0'; elsif (Clock'event and Clock='1') then Q0<=Q3 xor Q2;Q1<=Q0;Q2<=Q1;Q3<=Q2; end if; end process

Lecture #28 Page 14 Counters Multiple Processes - we can now use State Machines to control the start/stop/load/reset of counters - each are independent processes that interact with each other through signals - a common task for a state machine is: 1) at a certain state, load and enable a counter 2) go to a state and wait until the counter reaches a certain value 3) when it reaches the certain value, disable the counter and continue to the next state - since the counter runs off of a clock, we know how long it will count between the start and stop