VHDL-2008

Chapter 1. Enhanced Generics

We start our tour of the new features in VHDL-2008 with one of the most significant changes in the language, enhanced generics. All earlier versions of VHDL since VHDL-87 have included generic constants, which are interface constants for design entities and components. They are widely used in models to represent timing parameters and to control the widths of vector ports. When we instantiate an entity or component, we supply values for the generic constants for that instance. The generic constants in the generic list are called the formal generics, and the values we supply in the generic map are called the actual generics. Most of the time, generic constants are referred to just as “generics,” since the only kind of ...