Week 5 - (9/29/20)

Read: Chapters 11 - 13 of Textbook: Free Range VHDL

• 11. Data Objects

  • Dives into the four types of built in VHDL object types:

    • signals

      • can be thought of as wires

      • used when some circuit has interaction with the outside world

    • variables

      • similar to signals but can only be used INSIDE of process statements

      • value is assigned immediately within a process

        • vs. signals which have values assigned after completion of process statement

      • should be used mainly for loop counters or intermediate calculations

    • constants

    • files

      • used only in VHDL simulations

      • can't actually be implemented on boards

  • Describes how user-defined types are available and encouraged to promote code readability

• 12. Looping Constructs

  • Discusses the two types of loops:

    • For Loops

    • While Loops

  • Both loop types are sequential statements, thus they can only appear inside of process statements

  • Very similar to object oriented programming language loops

• 13. Standard Digital Circuits in VHDL

  • Expresses that good VHDL programming consists of taking and adapting snippets of pre-existing code

  • List of standard digital circuits:

    • MUXes

    • Decoders

    • Counters

    • Comparators

    • Registers, etc.

Download and read through Nexys A7 Reference Manual

• Found here