What’s New in MyHDL 0.3¶
VCD output for waveform viewing¶
MyHDL now has support for waveform viewing. During simulation, signal changes can be written to a VCD output file that can be loaded into)
All signals in the instance hierarchy will be traced in a VCD file
called . Note that first the.
Enumeration types¶
It is often desirable to define 0.3
Enumeration types are often used for the state variable in a finite
state machine. In the waveform in
Section 1, you see a
Signal called
state. Note how the waveforms show the string
representation of the enumeration type identifiers The
state signal
has been constructed with an enumeration type identifier as its initial
value, as follows:
state = Signal(t_State.SEARCH)
Inferring the sensitivity list for combinatorial logic¶
In MyHDL, combinatorial logic is described by a generator function with a sensitivity list that contains all inputs signals (the signals that are read inside the function).
It may be easy to forget some input signals, especially it there are a
lot of them or if the code is being modified. There are various ways to
solve this. One way is to use a sophisticated editor. Another way is
direct language support. For example, recent versions of Verilog have
the
always @* construct, that infers all input signals. The
SystemVerilog 3.1 standard improves on this by introducing the
always_comb block with slightly enhanced semantics.
MyHDL 0.3 provides a function called
always_comb which is
named and modeled after the SystemVerilog counterpart.
always_comb takes a classic local function as its argument.
This function should specify the combinatorial logic behavior.
always_comb returns a generator that is sensitive to all
inputs, and that will run the function whenever an input changes.
For example, suppose that we have a mux module described as follows:
def mux(z, a, b, sel): """ Multiplexer. z -- mux output a, b -- data inputs sel -- control input """ def logic() while 1: yield a, b, sel if sel == 1: z.next = a else: z.next = b mux_logic = logic() return mux_logic
Using
always_comb, we can describe it as follows instead:
def mux(z, a, b, sel): """ Multiplexer. z -- mux output a, b -- data inputs sel -- control input """ def logic() if sel == 1: z.next = a else: z.next = b mux_logic = always_comb(logic) return mux_logic
Note that in the first version, the sensitivity list is at the beginning
of the generator function code. This is traditionally done in
synthesizable RTL style modeling. However, the semantics of this style
are not entirely correct: at the start of the simulation, the
combinatorial output will not reflect the initial state of the inputs.
always_comb solves this by putting the sensitivity list at the
end of the code.
Inferring the list of instances¶
In MyHDL, the instances defined in a top level function need to be returned explicitly. The following is a schematic example:
def top(...): ... instance_1 = module_1(...) instance_2 = module_2(...) ... instance_n = module_n(...) ... return instance_1, instance_2, ... , instance_n
It may be convenient to assemble the list of instances automatically,
especially if there are many instances. For this purpose, MyHDL 0.3
provides the function
instances. It is used as follows:
from myhdl import instances def top(...): ... instance_1 = module_1(...) instance_2 = module_2(...) ... instance_n = module_n(...) ... return instances()
Function
instances uses introspection to inspect the type of
the local variables defined by the calling function. All variables that
comply with the definition of an instance are assembled in a list, and
that list is returned.
Inferring the list of processes¶
In addition to instances, a top level function may also define local generators functions, which I will call processes because of the analogy with VHDL. Like instances, processes need to be returned explicitly, with the qualification that they have to be called first to turn them into generators. The following is a schematic example:
def top(...): ... def process_1(): ... def process_2(): ... ... def process_n(): ... ... return process_1(), process_2(), ..., process_n()
As for instances, it may be more convenient to assemble the list of
processes automatically. One option is to turn each process into an
instance by calling it and assigning the returned generator to a local
variable. Those instances will then be found by the
instances
function described in
Section 4.
Another option is to use the function
processes provided by
MyHDL 0.3. This function uses introspection to find the processes, calls
each of them, and assembles the returned generators into a list. It can
be used as follows:
from myhdl import processes def top(...): ... def process_1(): ... def process_2(): ... ... def process_n(): ... ... return processes()
To conclude, a top level function with both instances and processes can use the following idiomatic code to return all of them:
return instances(), processes()
Class
intbv enhancements¶
Class
intbv has been enhanced with new features.
It is now possible to leave the left index of a slicing operation unspecified. The meaning is to access “all” higher order bits. For example:
>>> from myhdl import intbv >>> n = intbv() >>> hex(n) '0x0' >>> n[:] = 0xde >>> hex(n) '0xde' >>> n[:8] = 0xfa >>> hex(n) '0xfade' >>> n[8:] = 0xb4 >>> hex(n) '0xfab4'
intbv objects now have
min and
max attributes that can
be specified at construction time. The meaning is that only values
within
range(min, max) are permitted. The default value for these
attributes is
None, meaning “infinite”. For example (traceback
output shortened for clarity):
>>> n = intbv(min=-17, max=53) >>> n intbv(0) >>> n.min -17 >>> n.max 53 >>> n[:] = 28 >>> n intbv(28) >>> n[:] = -18 Traceback (most recent call last): .... ValueError: intbv value -18 < minimum -17 >>> n[:] = 53 Traceback (most recent call last): .... ValueError: intbv value 53 >= maximum 53
When a slice is taken from an
intbv object, the return value is
a new
intbv object with a defined bit width. As in Verilog, the
value of the new
intbv object is always positive, regardless of
the sign of the original value. In addition, the
min and
max
attributes are set implicitly:
>>> v = intbv()[6:] >>> v intbv(0) >>> v.min 0 >>> v.max 64
Lastly, a small change was implemented with regard to binary operations.
In previous versions, both numeric and bit-wise operations always
returned a new
intbv object, even in mixed-mode operations with
int objects. This has changed: numeric operations return an
int, and bitwise operations return a
intbv. In this
way, the return value corresponds better to the nature of the operation.
Function
concat¶
In previous versions, the
intbv class provided a method. This
method is no longer available. Instead, there is now a
concat
function that supports a much broader range of objects.
A function is more natural because MyHDL objects of various types can be
concatenated:
intbv objects with a defined bit width,
bool objects, the corresponding signal objects, and bit
strings. All these objects have a defined bit width. Moreover, the first
argument doesn’t need to have a defined bit width. It can also be an
unsized
intbv, an
int, a
long, or a
corresponding signal object. Function
concat returns an
intbv object.
Python 2.3 support¶
Python 2.3 was released on July 29, 2003, and as of this writing, it is the latest stable Python release. MyHDL 0.3 works with both Python 2.2 and Python 2.3. In good Python tradition, MyHDL code developed with Python 2.2 should run without changes or problems in Python 2.3.
In general, I am not that keen on early upgrading. However, as it happens, the evolution of Python enables features that are really important or even crucial to MyHDL. Python 2.2 generators are the best example: they are the cornerstone of MyHDL. But Python 2.3 also has significant benefits, which I will summarize below.
First, generators and the
yield statement are a default Python 2.3
feature. This means that statements are no longer required.
Second, Python 2.3 has a
bool type, which is implemented as a
subtype of
int. For general Python use, the implications are
rather limited - the main difference is that logical result values will
print as
False and
True instead of
0 and
1. However, in
MyHDL, I can use the
bool type to infer a bit width. If a
Signal is constructed with a
bool value, it is a
single bit
Signal. One application is waveform viewing as in
Section 1 In the waveform, note
how single bit signals are displayed as level changes. With Python 2.2,
the waveforms of these signals would only show value changes, which is
not as clear for single bits.
Finally, Python 2.3 is significantly faster. MyHDL code runs 25–35% faster in Python 2.3. This is a very nice speedup compared to the small burden of a straightforward upgrade.
Python is a very stable language, so upgrading to Python 2.3 is virtually risk free. Given the additional benefits, I recommend MyHDL users to do so as soon as possible. For the next major MyHDLrelease, the new features will become required and only Python 2.3 (and higher) will be supported.