[SOLVED] Need help understanding a step in VHDL code for Shift Register

[navienavnav]

The following is the code given for a shift register in my textbook :

ENTITY shiftreg IS
   GENERIC (n: INTEGER := 4); -- # of stages
   PORT (d, clk, rst: IN STD_LOGIC;
      q: OUT STD_LOGIC);
 END shiftreg;
 
 ARCHITECTURE behavior OF shiftreg IS
  SIGNAL internal: STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (n-1 DOWNTO 0);
   BEGIN
    PROCESS (clk, rst)
      BEGIN
        IF (rst='1') THEN
           internal <= (OTHERS => '0');
        ELSIF (clk'EVENT AND clk='1') THEN
           internal <= d & internal(internal'LEFT DOWNTO 1);
        END IF;
     END PROCESS;
   q <= internal(0);
 END behavior;

I can't understand the statement :

internal <= (OTHERS => '0');

What is this statement doing exactly? I have seen the use of the '=>' operator in CASE but I don't what and how it is doing here.

Please help. :sad:

 

[FvM]

It's a specific syntax used in bit vector and array aggregates. Because no elements besides OTHERS are assigned, the expression simply means: set all elements to '0'.

 

[ashes35]

the statement is basically internal=x"0000" which means internal equals zero.
Edit: internal="0000"

 

[navienavnav]

Thanks you.

And what about this one :

internal <= d & internal(internal'LEFT DOWNTO 1);

It is pushing the bit stored in d into internal but i don't understand the rest of it, that is internal(internal'LEFT DOWNTO 1)...what is this doing (syntactically) ?

 

[ashes35]

left is maximum bit number of internal so i think d means 1-bit data .The statement push first order bit to zero order bit and secondly change most significant bit with d in ever cycle.

 

[FvM]

internal<="0000" is correct but only valid for n=4. It should work for n value of n.

internal'LEFT is an attribute expression and gives 3 (n-1) in this case. So you can rewrite the assignment for n=4 as

internal <= d & internal(3 DOWNTO 1);

Already clear? Otherwise read about the meaning of the concatenation operator "&".

 

[navienavnav]

internal<="0000" is correct but only valid for n=4. It should work for n value of n.

internal'LEFT is an attribute expression and gives 3 (n-1) in this case. So you can rewrite the assignment for n=4 as

internal <= d & internal(3 DOWNTO 1);

Already clear? Otherwise read about the meaning of the concatenation operator "&".

Yes, I got it now! Thank you so much!!