What is a Verilog array ?
An array declaration of a net or variable can be either scalar or vector. Any number of dimensions can be created by specifying an address range after the identifier name and is called a multi-dimensional array. Arrays are allowed in Verilog for reg, wire, integer and real data types.
reg y1 [11:0]; // y is an scalar reg array of depth=12, each 1-bit wide
wire [0:7] y2 [3:0] // y is an 8-bit vector net with a depth of 4
reg [7:0] y3 [0:1][0:3]; // y is a 2D array rows=2,cols=4 each 8-bit wide
An index for every dimension has to be specified to access a particular element of an array and can be an expression of other variables. An array can be formed for any of the different data-types supported in Verilog.
Note that a memory of n 1-bit reg is not the same as an n-bit vector reg.
Array Assignment
y1 = 0; // Illegal - All elements can't be assigned in a single go
y2[0] = 8'ha2; // Assign 0xa2 to index=0
y2[2] = 8'h1c; // Assign 0x1c to index=2
y3[1][2] = 8'hdd; // Assign 0xdd to rows=1 cols=2
y3[0][0] = 8'haa; // Assign 0xaa to rows=0 cols=0
Array Example
The code shown below simply shows how different arrays can be modeled, assigned and accessed. mem1 is an 8-bit vector, mem2 is an 8-bit array with a depth of 4 (specified by the range [0:3]) and mem3 is a 16-bit vector 2D array with 4 rows and 2 columns. These variables are assigned different values and printed.
module des ();
reg [7:0] mem1; // reg vector 8-bit wide
reg [7:0] mem2 [0:3]; // 8-bit wide vector array with depth=4
reg [15:0] mem3 [0:3][0:1]; // 16-bit wide vector 2D array with rows=4,cols=2
initial begin
int i;
mem1 = 8'ha9;
$display ("mem1 = 0x%0h", mem1);
mem2[0] = 8'haa;
mem2[1] = 8'hbb;
mem2[2] = 8'hcc;
mem2[3] = 8'hdd;
for(i = 0; i < 4; i = i+1) begin
$display("mem2[%0d] = 0x%0h", i, mem2[i]);
end
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i += 1) begin
for(int j = 0; j < 2; j += 1) begin
mem3[i][j] = i + j;
$display("mem3[%0d][%0d] = 0x%0h", i, j, mem3[i][j]);
end
end
end
endmodule
ncsim> run mem1 = 0xa9 mem2[0] = 0xaa mem2[1] = 0xbb mem2[2] = 0xcc mem2[3] = 0xdd mem3[0][0] = 0x0 mem3[0][1] = 0x1 mem3[1][0] = 0x1 mem3[1][1] = 0x2 mem3[2][0] = 0x2 mem3[2][1] = 0x3 mem3[3][0] = 0x3 mem3[3][1] = 0x4 ncsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.
What are memories ?
Memories are digital storage elements that help store a data and information in digital circuits. RAMs and ROMs are good examples of such memory elements. Storage elements can be modeled using one-dimensional arrays of type reg and is called a memory. Each element in the memory may represent a word and is referenced using a single array index.
Register Vector
Verilog vectors are declared using a size range on the left side of the variable name and these get realized into flops that match the size of the variable. In the code shown below, the design module accepts clock, reset and some control signals to read and write into the block.
It contains a 16-bit storage element called register which simply gets updated during writes and returns the current value during reads. The register is written when sel and wr are high on the same clock edge. It returns the current data when sel is high and wr is low.
module des ( input clk,
input rstn,
input wr,
input sel,
input [15:0] wdata,
output [15:0] rdata);
reg [15:0] register;
always @ (posedge clk) begin
if (!rstn)
register <= 0;
else begin
if (sel & wr)
register <= wdata;
else
register <= register;
end
end
assign rdata = (sel & ~wr) ? register : 0;
endmodule
The hardware schematic shows that a 16-bit flop is updated when control logic for writes are active and the current value is returned when control logic is configured for reads.
Memory Example
In this example, register is an array that has four locations with each having a width of 16-bits. The design module accepts an additional input signal which is called addr to access a particular index in the array.
module des ( input clk,
input rstn,
input [1:0] addr,
input wr,
input sel,
input [15:0] wdata,
output [15:0] rdata);
reg [15:0] register [0:3];
integer i;
always @ (posedge clk) begin
if (!rstn) begin
for (i = 0; i < 4; i = i+1) begin
register[i] <= 0;
end
end else begin
if (sel & wr)
register[addr] <= wdata;
else
register[addr] <= register[addr];
end
end
assign rdata = (sel & ~wr) ? register[addr] : 0;
endmodule
It can be seen in the hardware schematic that each index of the array is a 16-bit flop and the input address is used to access a particular set of flops.
