VHDL: how to represent signed/unsigned as integer string when >32 bits - vhdl

I am doing a bunch of DSP verification and for printing when assertions fail, I wrote these functions for signed and unsigned types:
function to_string(arg : integer) return string is
begin
return integer'image(arg);
end function;
function to_string(arg : signed) return string is
begin
return to_string(to_integer(arg));
end function;
function to_string(arg : unsigned) return string is
begin
return to_string(to_integer(arg));
end function;
However, they just broke as some of my results are larger than 32 bits wide. Is there a way in VHDL to provide an integer string representation of signed and unsigned types when they're greater than 32 bits wide? If not, can someone provide a function for providing the hex representation of these numbers to reduce the size of what is printed to the console?

Hex representation is provided for free in VHDL 2008 in the numeric_std package via the to_hstring function. to_string and to_ostring are also provided.
These functions were provided for all bit-based types in their native packages. write, owrite and hwrite are also provided for writing to a line.

The VUnit string_ops package provides such functions: https://github.com/VUnit/vunit/blob/3de8d229ca7b4ba3db395f3981a3ea107cf67c72/vunit/vhdl/string_ops/src/string_ops.vhd#L611.

Related

How do I write and then read an arbitrary string to shared memory using Linux in Ada?

I'm a beginner at Ada and most of the resources online are all in C and I'm having a difficult time translating over into Ada.
Should I use SysV shm with shmget and shmat or should I use POSIX shm with mmap and shm_open?
Can you give me an example of an Ada program with these two procedures (write, then read)? Say I want to write and then read the string "Butterflies", for example.
Thanks a million!
There's several methods that you could do this. Perhaps the easiest is memory overlays. Let's say that you reserve a block of memory $3300 to $33FF, what you could do use the byte at $3300 to indicate the length of the string, with $3301..$33FF as the contents of the string.
With Interfaces;
Package ShortString is
Type String( Length : Interfaces.Unsigned_8 ) is private;
-- Convert a shortstring to a standard string.
Function "+"( Input : String ) Return Standard.String;
-- Convert a standard string to a short-string.
Function "+"( Input : Standard.String ) Return String
with Pre => Input'Length <= Positive(Interfaces.Unsigned_8'Last);
Private
-- Declare a Positive subtype for a byte.
Subtype Positive is Interfaces.Unsigned_8 range 1..Interfaces.Unsigned_8'Last;
-- Use the byte-sized positive for indexing the short-string.
Type Internal is Array(Positive range <>) of Character;
-- Declare a varying-length record for the short-string implementation.
Type String( Length : Interfaces.Unsigned_8 ) is record
Data : Internal(1..Length);
end record;
-- We must ensure the first byte is the length.
For String use record
Length at 0 range 0..7;
end record;
Function "+"( Input : String ) Return Standard.String is
( Standard.String(Input.Data) );
Function "+"( Input : Standard.String ) Return String is
( Length => Interfaces.Unsigned_8(Input'Length),
Data => Internal( Input )
);
End ShortString;
Then for memory overlay:
Overlayed_String : ShortString.String(255)
with Import, Address => System.Storage_Elements.To_Address( 16#3300# );

How would I create a function to convert from an integer to std_logic vector in VHDL?

I am seeking help as I am learning this language construct.
Here is what I have:
function int_slv(val,width: integer) return std_logic_vector is
variable R: std_logic_vector(0 to width-1):=(others=>'0')
variable b:integer:= width;
begin
if (b>32) then
b=32;
else
assert 2**bits >val report
"value too big for std_logic_vector"
severity warning
end if;
for i in 0 to b-1 loop
if val ((val/(2**i)) MOD 2 = 1) then
R(i)='1';
end if;
end loop;
return(R);
end int_slv;
In addition to 5 syntax errors, one wrong identifier and a modulo reduction expressions expressed as an element of an array as well as several sets of redundant parentheses, your modified code:
library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
package int2bv_pkg is
function int_slv (val, width: integer) return std_logic_vector;
end package;
package body int2bv_pkg is
function int_slv (val, width: integer) return std_logic_vector is
variable R: std_logic_vector(0 to width-1):=(others=>'0'); -- added ';'
variable b:integer:= width;
begin
if b > 32 then
b := 32; -- ":=" is used for variable assignment
else
assert 2 ** width > val report -- width not bits
"value too big for std_logic_vector"
severity warning; -- missing semicolon at the end of assertion
end if;
for i in 0 to b - 1 loop
if val/2 ** i MOD 2 = 1 then -- not val (...)
R(i) := '1'; -- ":=" variable assign.
end if;
end loop;
return R; -- parentheses not needed
end int_slv;
end package body int2bv_pkg;
analyzes (compiles). The exponentiation operator "**" is the highest priority, the division operators "/" and "mod" are the same priority and executed in the order they are found (left to right). It's likely worthwhile learning VHDL operator precedence.
You were using "=" for variable assignment when you should have been using ":=" in two places, you were missing two semicolons and were using the identifier bits (which isn't declared in your function) where apparently you meant width.
The modified example analyzes, and hasn't been tested absent a Minimal, Complete and Verifiable example in the question.
Note that a package body is a design unit as is a package declaration. There are various other places in other design units you can introduce a function body.
You could also note the 2 ** 31 is outside the guaranteed range of an integer in VHDL equal to 2147483648, while the INTEGER value range guaranteed to be from -2147483647 to +2147483647 at a minimum.
This implies that were ever you are using a value that derived from an expression equivalent to 2 ** 31 you can incur a range error during execution (either at elaboration or during simulation).
This pretty much says you need a VHDL implementation with a larger INTEGER value range or you need to rethink what you're doing.
As a matter of course there are integer to unsigned and integer to signed functions found in package numeric_std in library IEEE.
The result of such can be type converted to std_logic_vector, and the source code can make great learning aids on how to wend through the limitations VHDL imposes. These to_signed or to_unsigned functions would be capable of dealing with the maximum value an INTEGER can hold and specify the length of the resulting array type while providing zero or sign filling for array lengths greater than the INTEGER's binary value. That utility extends to clipping using length as well.
VHDL -2008 package numeric_std_unsigned contains a function To_StdLogicVector that does what your int_slv function is intended to do although limited to a NATURAL range for the integer type input.
As #user1155120 has already indicated, the VHDL-2008 package numeric_std_unsigned has a builtin to_stdlogicvector. And #user1155120 already pointed out the to_signed and to_unsigned in numeric_std are available as well.
So, to expand on the previous answer, you can do:
constant C : integer := -6817563;
constant C_VEC : std_logic_vector(31 downto 0) := std_logic_vector(to_signed(c, 32));
And this mechanism will accept the full range of integer. You can also use to_unsigned, but this is limited to the range of natural.

How to subtract two hexadecimal numbers in VHDL?

I am reading two hex numbers from a text file and I want to be able to subtract the two numbers and place the result into another variable how would I go about doing this? Is it possible to make a function to do this that I can then place in a package file and reference so that my code is more readable and less cluttered?
many thanks,
For conversion of line to unsigned, VHDL-2008 provides a hread procedure in then numeric_bit package. A function that takes string and returns natural could look like:
library ieee;
use ieee.numeric_bit.all;
library std;
use std.textio.all;
...
function hex_to_nat(s : string) return natural is
variable line_v : line;
variable value_v : unsigned(4 * s'length - 1 downto 0); -- Bits to match value in hex
begin
line_v := new string'(s);
hread(line_v, value_v); -- Assertion in case of conversion error
deallocate(line_v); -- Avoid memory leak
return to_integer(value_v); -- Assertion in case of conversion error
end function;
If the text read from the file is already of line type, then just use the hread procedure directly.

No function declarations for operator + error in VHDL

In this piece of code I get this error for the line with +
function func (bv1 : in bit_vector; bv2 : in integer) return bit_vector is
variable temp : natural := 2**bv2;
variable result : bit_vector(1 to 32);
begin
report "asd" & natural'image(temp);
result <= bv1 + temp; // this line causes the error
return result;
end func;
The error is :
No function declarations for operator +
How can I solve this? I also get a similar error for "=" as well.
Don't use bit_vectors (or std_logic_vectors, really) for anything you want to do arithmetic on.
Use the ieee.numeric_std library and then declare your signals (or whatever) to be of type signed ot unsigned depending on what type of vector you want. (Or of course, you can just use integers and the subtypes of that)
It's because you try to add a natural to a bit_vector which does not work because they are of different types. So you'll have to use a converter, e.g. as shown here within one of the functions. The other method is to stick to all the same types, but that isn't always possible.
Some initial problems with the code are that VHDL comments markup is --, not
//, and assign to result variable must use :=, since <= is for assign
to signal.
Then, the reason for the error:
No function declarations for operator +
is that VHDL is a strong typed language, so it is not possible just to add a
natural type and a bit_vector type, as attempted in result <= bv1 + temp.
Instead you need to use the package numeric_bit_unsigned, and for example
convert temp to bit_vector using function to_bitvector before adding.
Resulting code can then be:
library ieee;
use ieee.numeric_bit_unsigned.all;
...
function func (bv1 : in bit_vector; bv2 : in integer) return bit_vector is
variable temp : natural := 2**bv2;
variable result : bit_vector(1 to 32);
begin
report "asd" & natural'image(temp);
result := bv1 + to_bitvector(temp, result'length); -- this line causes the error
return result;
end func;
You should check that the length is enough to handle the required values.
However, instead of using bit_vector type, you may consider the
std_logic_vector (depending on the design), since the std_logic_vector has
additional values that may reveal design problem in simulation.

String to byte array in UTF-8?

How to convert a WideString (or other long string) to byte array in UTF-8?
A function like this will do what you need:
function UTF8Bytes(const s: UTF8String): TBytes;
begin
Assert(StringElementSize(s)=1);
SetLength(Result, Length(s));
if Length(Result)>0 then
Move(s[1], Result[0], Length(s));
end;
You can call it with any type of string and the RTL will convert from the encoding of the string that is passed to UTF-8. So don't be tricked into thinking you must convert to UTF-8 before calling, just pass in any string and let the RTL do the work.
After that it's a fairly standard array copy. Note the assertion that explicitly calls out the assumption on string element size for a UTF-8 encoded string.
If you want to get the zero-terminator you would write it so:
function UTF8Bytes(const s: UTF8String): TBytes;
begin
Assert(StringElementSize(s)=1);
SetLength(Result, Length(s)+1);
if Length(Result)>0 then
Move(s[1], Result[0], Length(s));
Result[high(Result)] := 0;
end;
You can use TEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes in SysUtils.pas
If you're using Delphi 2009 or later (the Unicode versions), converting a WideString to a UTF8String is a simple assignment statement:
var
ws: WideString;
u8s: UTF8String;
u8s := ws;
The compiler will call the right library function to do the conversion because it knows that values of type UTF8String have a "code page" of CP_UTF8.
In Delphi 7 and later, you can use the provided library function Utf8Encode. For even earlier versions, you can get that function from other libraries, such as the JCL.
You can also write your own conversion function using the Windows API:
function CustomUtf8Encode(const ws: WideString): UTF8String;
var
n: Integer;
begin
n := WideCharToMultiByte(cp_UTF8, 0, PWideChar(ws), Length(ws), nil, 0, nil, nil);
Win32Check(n <> 0);
SetLength(Result, n);
n := WideCharToMultiByte(cp_UTF8, 0, PWideChar(ws), Length(ws), PAnsiChar(Result), n, nil, nil);
Win32Check(n = Length(Result));
end;
A lot of the time, you can simply use a UTF8String as an array, but if you really need a byte array, you can use David's and Cosmin's functions. If you're writing your own character-conversion function, you can skip the UTF8String and go directly to a byte array; just change the return type to TBytes or array of Byte. (You may also wish to increase the length by one, if you want the array to be null-terminated. SetLength will do that to the string implicitly, but to an array.)
If you have some other string type that's neither WideString, UnicodeString, nor UTF8String, then the way to convert it to UTF-8 is to first convert it to WideString or UnicodeString, and then convert it back to UTF-8.
var S: UTF8String;
B: TBytes;
begin
S := 'Șase sași în șase saci';
SetLength(B, Length(S)); // Length(s) = 26 for this 22 char string.
CopyMemory(#B[0], #S[1], Length(S));
end.
Depending on what you need the bytes for, you might want to include an NULL terminator.
For production code make sure you test for empty string. Adding the 3-4 LOC required would just make the sample harder to read.
I have the following two routines (source code can be downloaded here - http://www.csinnovations.com/framework_utilities.htm):
function CsiBytesToStr(const pInData: TByteDynArray; pStringEncoding: TECsiStringEncoding; pIncludesBom: Boolean): string;
function CsiStrToBytes(const pInStr: string; pStringEncoding: TECsiStringEncoding;
pIncludeBom: Boolean): TByteDynArray;
widestring -> UTF8:
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/system/utf8decode.html
the opposite:
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/system/utf8encode.html
Note that assigning a widestring to an ansistring in a pre D2009 system (including current Free Pascal) will convert to the local ansi encoding, garbling characters.
For the TBytes part, see the remark of Rob Kennedy above.

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