Procedures in testbench confusion

Hi,

I am rather confused about the use of procedures in testbenches. My
intention is to model an I2C-bus with pullup resistors. My testbench
consists of a testprocess with a couple of procedures;reset, do
something, check that, do something else, check that etc.
If I set the I2C SCL and SDA line to 'H' in the reset-procedure and
then to '0' in another later procedure, everything is fine. But if set
them to 'H' outside the test-process, in the parallell part of the
code, both are 'U' from the very beginning of the simulation.
Both SCL and SDA are declared std_logic so why isnt the conflict
between 'H' and '0' resolved? And why are they 'U' from the beginning,
not just from the point in time were they are set to '0'?

I am sure that there is a very basic answer to this question and I
would be grateful if someone could provide it.

Regards, Peter

Peter Hermansson

On 25 Aug 2004 00:34:59 -0700, (Peter
Hermansson) wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am rather confused about the use of procedures in testbenches. My
>intention is to model an I2C-bus with pullup resistors. My testbench
>consists of a testprocess with a couple of procedures;reset, do
>something, check that, do something else, check that etc.
>If I set the I2C SCL and SDA line to 'H' in the reset-procedure and
>then to '0' in another later procedure, everything is fine. But if set
>them to 'H' outside the test-process, in the parallell part of the
>code, both are 'U' from the very beginning of the simulation.
>Both SCL and SDA are declared std_logic so why isnt the conflict
>between 'H' and '0' resolved? And why are they 'U' from the beginning,
>not just from the point in time were they are set to '0'?

Every process in VHDL represents a driver on each signal assigned
within that process. Continuous assignments, like your external
pullup assignments, are processes too. So, at time 0 you have
your pullup process assigning 'H', and your test process assigning
the initial value of the signal, which is 'U'. Since 'U' is the
strongest of all std_logic values, you see 'U' until the test
process assigns a different value.

Since it's a test bench, one possible solution is to give the I2C
signals initial values:

signal SCL, SDA: std_logic := 'H'; -- or 'Z' if you have a pullup

This means that the initial value of SCL and SDA *in every process
that drives them* is 'H'.

I don't really see why the external pullup process is useful. Your
test process must drive the signal to '0' when it wants zero, and
then to either 'H' or 'Z' when it wants the pullup to drive 1.
Consequently, you save yourself nothing by adding the external
pullup process.

HTH
--
Jonathan Bromley, Consultant

DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, Perl, Tcl/Tk, Verification, Project Services

Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, BH24 1AW, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail:
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The contents of this message may contain personal views which
are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.

Jonathan Bromley

Jonathan Bromley <> wrote in message news:<>. ..
>
> I don't really see why the external pullup process is useful. Your
> test process must drive the signal to '0' when it wants zero, and
> then to either 'H' or 'Z' when it wants the pullup to drive 1.
> Consequently, you save yourself nothing by adding the external
> pullup process.
>
> HTH
> --
> Jonathan Bromley, Consultant
>
> DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
> VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, Perl, Tcl/Tk, Verification, Project Services
>
> Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, BH24 1AW, UK
> Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail:
> Fax: +44 (0)1425 471573 Web: http://www.doulos.com
>
> The contents of this message may contain personal views which
> are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.


Thanks!

/Peter

Peter Hermansson