Types

Information about synthesisable types.

Builtins

Integers are synthesised into 32-bit logic, thought there may be optimizations. Variable bit-width integers can be implemented with the Sfix class. Booleans are fully usable.

Any Pyha object or builtin can be used in a list. Lists can be used as registers, function inputs/outputs or simulation top-level inputs/outputs.

Example of bool shift-register:

class ShiftReg(Hardware):
    def __init__(self):
        self.shr = [False] * 4 # define register

    def main(self, x):
        self.shr = [x] + self.shr[:-1] # throw away last element and add new element as first
        return self.shr # return the whole list

Constants

Constants are defined by writing the variable name in UPPERCASE, this has no effect in Python simulations, but usually saves resources in hardware.

Example:

class Dut(Hardware):
    def __init__(self):
        self.regular = 1
        self.CONSTANT = 1

Fixed-point

Complex numbers

Floats

Floats can be used when performing arithmetic/comparison with fixed-point numbers, in this case they are first converted to the type of the other fixed-point operand.

Float registers are converted automatically into fixed-point representation, by default Sfix(left=0, right=-17).

class Dut(Hardware):
    def __init__(self):
        self.reg = 0.1   # will be converted to "Sfix(0.1, 0, -17)"

Enums (state machines)

Use Enums to build state machines. Example:

class States(Enum):
    S0, S1 = range(2)

class T(Hardware):
    def __init__(self):
        self.state = States.S0 # state register

    def main(self, a):
        if self.state == States.S0:
            self.state = States.S1
            return 0
        elif self.state == States.S1:
            self.state = States.S0
            return a

User defined types

User defined types can be used as registers, inputs/outputs to simulation etc..

Example:

# user type with 'x' and 'y' elements
class Point(Hardware):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y

# accumulator of Points
class PointAcc(Hardware):
    def __init__(self):
        self.sum = Point(0, 0)

    def main(self, a):
        self.sum.x = a.x
        self.sum.y = a.y
        return self.sum



inp = [Point(1, 2), Point(3, 4)] # use Point() as input to simulation
dut = PointAcc()
sims = simulate(dut, inp, simulations=['PYHA', 'RTL'])