In the previous article, an overview of the major data types were given. In this session, we'll look at 4-state and 2-state variables and two new data types called logic and bit.
4-state data types
Types that can have unknown (X) and high-impedance (Z) value in addition to zero (0) and one (1) are called 4-state types. Note that reg can only be driven in procedural blocks like always and initial while wire data types can only be driven in assign statements. SystemVerilog introduces a new 4-state data type called logic that can be driven in both procedural blocks and continuous assign statements. But, a signal with more than one driver needs to be declared a net-type such as wire so that SystemVerilog can resolve the final value.
logic
module tb;
logic [3:0] my_data; // Declare a 4-bit logic type variable
logic en; // Declare a 1-bit logic type variable
initial begin
$display ("my_data=0x%0h en=%0b", my_data, en); // Default value of logic type is X
my_data = 4'hB; // logic datatype can be driven in initial/always blocks
$display ("my_data=0x%0h en=%0b", my_data, en);
#1;
$display ("my_data=0x%0h en=%0b", my_data, en);
end
assign en = my_data[0]; // logic datatype can also be driven via assign statements
endmodule
ncsim> run my_data=0xx en=x my_data=0xb en=x my_data=0xb en=1 ncsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.
2-state data types
In a typical verification testbench, there are many cases where we don't really need all the four values (0, 1, x, z) like for example when modeling a network packet with a header that specifies the length of the packet.Length is usually a number, but not X and Z. SystemVerilog adds many new 2-state data types that can only store and have a value of either 0 or 1. This will aid in faster simulation, take less memory and are preferred in some design styles.
When a 4-state value is converted to a 2-state value, any unknown or high-impedance bits shall be converted to zeros.
The most important 2-state data type is bit which is used most often in testbenches. A variable of type bit can be either 0 or 1 which represents a single bit. A range from MSB to LSB should be provided to make it represent and store multiple bits
bit
module tb;
bit var_a; // Declare a 1 bit variable of type "bit"
bit [3:0] var_b; // Declare a 4 bit variable of type "bit"
logic [3:0] x_val; // Declare a 4 bit variable of type "logic"
initial begin
// Initial value of "bit" data type is 0
$display ("Initial value var_a=%0b var_b=0x%0h", var_a, var_b);
// Assign new values and display the variable to see that it gets the new values
var_a = 1;
var_b = 4'hF;
$display ("New values var_a=%0b var_b=0x%0h", var_a, var_b);
// If a "bit" type variable is assigned with a value greater than it can hold
// the left most bits are truncated. In this case, var_b can hold only 4 bits
// and hence 'h481 gets truncated leaving var_b with only 'ha;
var_b = 16'h481a;
$display ("Truncated value: var_b=0x%0h", var_b);
// If a logic type or any 4-state variable assigns its value to a "bit" type
// variable, then X and Z get converted to zero
var_b = 4'b01zx;
$display ("var_b = %b", var_b);
end
endmodule
ncsim> run Initial value var_a=0 var_b=0x0 New values var_a=1 var_b=0xf Truncated value: var_b=0xa var_b = 0100 ncsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.
