I am in the process of writing some Verilog modules for an FPGA design. I looked around the internet to find out how I best parametrize my modules. I see two different methods occurring often. I included an example hereunder of the two different methodologies. Which of these methods is the best way to parametrize modules? What is the difference? Is it vendor-dependent (Altera vs Xilinx)?
The first method: Module definition:
module busSlave #(parameter DATA_WIDTH = 1) (
input [DATA_WIDTH-1:0] bus_data,
input bus_wr,
...
);
endmodule
Module instantiation:
module top;
//DATA_WIDTH is 32 in this instance
busSlave #(.DATA_WIDTH(32)) slave32(
.bus_data(data_0),
.bus_wr(wr_0),
...
);
//DATA_WIDTH is 64 in this instance
busSlave #(.DATA_WIDTH(64)) slave64(
.bus_data(data_1),
.bus_wr(wr_1),
...
);
endmodule
The second method: Module definition:
module busSlave(
parameter DATA_WIDTH = 1;
input [DATA_WIDTH-1:0] bus_data,
input bus_wr,
...
);
endmodule
Module instantiation:
module top;
//DATA_WIDTH is 32 in this instance
busSlave slave32(
.bus_data(data_0),
.bus_wr(wr_0),
...
);
defparam slave32.DATA_WIDTH = 32;
//DATA_WIDTH is 64 in this instance
busSlave slave64(
.bus_data(data_1),
.bus_wr(wr_1),
...
);
defparam slave32.DATA_WIDTH = 64;
endmodule
Thanks in advance
EDIT: a few corrections in the examples
The defparam
statement is scheduled for deprecation. The IEEE Std 1800-2012, Annex C (Deprecation), section "C.4.1 Defparam statements" states:
users are strongly encouraged to migrate their code to use one of the alternate methods of parameter redefinition.
Many features of Verilog are vendor-dependent.