VHDL accepts the ISO 8859-1 character set, this is UTF-8.
Your VHDL analyzer is having problems with some of the characters as a result of you copying the text directly from a book.
Your comments aren't delineated by two dashes (e.g. --
), your double quotation marks all need to be replaced with "
.
After which the VHDL code analyzes.
There's no discernible reason why d3
, d2
, d1
, and d0
can't be replaced with a bit_vector. There may uses with the present port interface in the book.
Formal ports are associated with actual signals in an association list. It's possible to associate individual elements of a vector with a base element.
Converting between non-closely related types can be done with conversion routines:
-- bcd_7seg.vhd
-- bcd-to-seven-segment decoder
entity bcd_7seg is
port(
d3, d2, d1, d0: in bit;
a, b, c, d, e, f, g: out bit
);
end entity;
architecture seven_segment of bcd_7seg is
signal input : bit_vector (3 downto 0);
signal output: bit_vector (6 downto 0);
begin
input <= d3 & d2 & d1 & d0;
with input select
output <= "0000001" when "0000",
"1001111" when "0001",
"0010010" when "0010",
"0000110" when "0011",
"1001100" when "0100",
"0100100" when "0101",
"1100000" when "0110",
"0001111" when "0111",
"0000000" when "1000",
"0001100" when "1001",
"1111111" when others;
-- separate the output vector to make individual pin outputs.
a <= output(6);
b <= output(5);
c <= output(4);
d <= output(3);
e <= output(2);
f <= output(1);
g <= output(0);
end architecture;
library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
entity bcd_tb is
end entity;
architecture foo of bcd_tb is
signal d: std_logic_vector (3 downto 0) := "0100";
signal output: std_logic_vector (6 downto 0);
begin
DUT:
entity work.bcd_7seg
port map (
d3 => to_bit(d(3)),
d2 => to_bit(d(2)),
d1 => to_bit(d(1)),
d0 => to_bit(d(0)),
to_stdulogic(a) => output(6),
to_stdulogic(b) => output(5),
to_stdulogic(c) => output(4),
to_stdulogic(d) => output(3),
to_stdulogic(e) => output(2),
to_stdulogic(f) => output(1),
to_stdulogic(g) => output(0)
);
end architecture;
You can also associate individual elements of an array type port with the base element type or use conversion functions as are shown above for converting between type bit and the element type for std_logic_vector.
Best Answer
This is mostly for Jonathan Drolet but there's also a lesson here. Note that parameter argument to my_function supplies a type mark with a subtype indication. This is valid in VHDL.
This code analyzes, elaborates and simulates.
Note that the return mark is an unconstrained subtype and the result value is assigned to a declared signal with a subtype indication (supplying an index constraint).
There are rules specifically for determining the effective value of a signal that require the bounds be checked after an implicit subtype conversion. Providing a return value that doesn't match the bounds of
humble
would result in a run time error causing simulation to end without successfully completing.In other words a constraint isn't necessary here. The return value subtype indication is derived internally, and as is shown in this from the input parameter.