How could you find a majority of the vote if each of five voters has a switch to vote for yes or no? The logic is fairly simple and will be used in this project. Any time there are three or more of the five who vote yes, then there is a majority and the LED needs to turn on.
Qty | Description |
---|---|
1 | Digilent® Nexys™4, Nexys™3, Nexys™2, or Basys™2 FPGA Board |
1 | Xilinx ISE Design Suite: WebPACK (14.6 Recommended) |
1 | Digilent Adept |
If a truth table is completed for the logic equation, it is a fairly easy step to get a maxterm equation and simplify it with an entered variable K-map. Knowing how to use and read a K-map is a fundamental step in creating a digital circuit with minimum transistors and no redundancies.
Start a new project as instructed in previous projects. Use a blank Verilog file and construct a proper UCF file for your board.
For this project, we are going to utilize 5 inputs and an LED as an output. The LED will illuminate
whenever the majority of voters vote yes.
An example of the module and I/O declaration for Verilog file is shown as follows:
module top(
input [4:0] sw,
output Led
);
assign led = (sw[0] & sw[1] & sw[3]) |
(sw[0] & sw[1] & sw[2]) |
(sw[1] & sw[2] & sw[3]) |
(sw[0] & sw[2] & sw[3]) |
(sw[0] & sw[1] & sw[4]) |
(sw[2] & sw[3] & sw[4]) |
(sw[0] & sw[2] & sw[4]) |
(sw[0] & sw[3] & sw[4]) |
(sw[1] & sw[3] & sw[4]) |
(sw[1] & sw[2] & sw[4]);
endmodule
How can we tell if a complex logic block is working as expected?
The Verilog code can be simulated by utilizing a Verilog test fixture, also called a test bench. To add a test fixture, you will need to add a file like you would when starting a new module, only you will select “Verilog Test Fixture” rather than “Verilog Module”. This will open up a template for the test fixture. The comments section has been removed for readability.
'timescale 1ns/ 1ps
Here we need to talk about 'timescale. The 'timescale compiler directive defines the units used in a delay
command, which is simply “#50”. This means that there is a delay for 50 units defined in the 'timescale compiler
directive. The value before the backslash is the delay unit and the value after the backslash defines the
smallest increment that can be used in the delay.
The test fixture block of code is a module just like a typical Verilog module but functioning in test fixture, we
artificially manipulate the inputs and can examine how the circuit behaves in simulation.
The test fixture is named “testbench” in this example and defines the input and outputs that we are interested in from the block of code that is being tested. Unlike the circuit that was built as a Verilog Module, a test bench is a module that has no input or output port. It only has internal signals that are connected to the circuit under test (CUT). It generates inputs for the CUT and senses the outputs of the CUT to verify that the CUT is implemented as specified.
module testbench;
// Inputs
reg [4:0] sw;
// Outputs
wire Led;
The top module is instantiated in the test fixture. The input port “sw” of the top module is connected to an internal register called sw as declared in the previous step, the output port LED is connected to the wired LED. Later projects will go into further detail on instantiating.
// Instantiate the Unit Under Test (UUT)
top uut (
.sw(sw),
.Led(Led)
);
In this part of the project, you will start writing codes to generate stimulus for the “majority of five” circuit. Initial block is used here to code the stimulus generation. Initial block will be processed only once by the simulator. Before the initial block, we will define an integer k, so that we can loop through all the possible input combinations for the “majority of five” circuit. Inside the initial block, we will initialize all the input to zero. A for statement is used to loop through all the input possibilities. One input pattern will be held at the input for 50 ns before updating to the next input pattern. After cycling through all of the possible input patterns, the $finish command is used to end the simulation. The code is shown as follows:
// Declare loop index variable
integer k;
// Apply input stimulus
initial
begin
sw = 0;
for (k=0; k<32; k=k+1)
#5 sw = k;
#20 $finish;
end
Finally, we close the module as usual with endmodule.
endmodule
'timescale 1ns/ 1ps
module testbench;
// Inputs
reg [4:0] sw;
// Outputs
wire Led;
// Instantiate the Unit Under Test (UUT)
top uut (
.sw(sw),
.Led(Led)
);
// Declare loop index variable
integer k;
// Apply input stimulus
initial
begin
sw = 0;
for (k=0; k<32; k=k+1)
#5 sw = k;
#20 $finish;
end
endmodule
The top line in Fig. 9 shows when an LED is held high and any time there are three to five switches turned on so the LED would turn on. You have now successfully run a Verilog Simulation for Majority of Five!
The above are screenshots of Xilinx ISE WebPACK running on Windows 7.
Now that you've completed this project, try these modifications: