Classes

• Each object has a data type and class.

• Class indicates how the object is used in the module and what can be done with that object.

• Type indicates what type of data the object contains.

• Each object belongs to one of the following class:
– CONSTANT
– SIGNAL
– VARIABLE



Constants

• These are identifiers with fixed values.

• The value is assigned only once when declared.

• Values cannot be changed during simulation

CONSTANT bus_width : INTEGER :=16 ;
CONSTANT CLK_PERIOD : TIME :=15 ns ;

• Constants make the design description more readable.

• Design changed at later time becomes easy.

Signals

Equivalent to wires within a circuit



Example:

architecture and_gate of myand is
signal TEMP : STD_LOGIC ;
begin
U1 : AND2 portmap ( a, b, TEMP ) ;
U2 : AND2 portmap (TEMP, c , d ) ;
end and_gate ;


• Thus signals are used :

– to connect design entities together and communicate changes in values within a design
– instead of INOUT mode

• Each signal has a history of values i.e. they hold a list of values which include current value of the signal and a set of possible future values that can appear on the signal.

• Computed value is assigned to signal after specified delay called DELTA DELAY.

Variables

• These are objects with single current value.

• They are used to store the intermediate values between the sequential statements.

• Variable assignment occurs immediately.

• Variables can be declared and used inside the process statement only. But they retain their value throughout the entire simulation.

Example :



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