VHDL driving signal from different processes

Question

I have a little problem with following VHDL code:

process (zbroji)
begin
    if rising_edge(zbroji) then
        oduzima <= '0';
        ucitanPrvi <= '1';
        broj1 <= ulaz_broj;
    end if;
end process;

process (oduzmi)
begin
    if rising_edge(oduzmi) then
        oduzima <= '1';
        ucitanPrvi <= '1';
        broj1 <= ulaz_broj;
    end if;

end process;

The problem is that signal ucitanPrvi always has value X. If I don't try to set it's value in two processes, then I don't have any problems ... So I know that I mustn't drive one signal from multiple processes, but I don't know how to write this differently ... Does anyone have an idea how I could resolve this problem ?

Thanks !

EDIT: Thank you all guys for replying :) Now I understand why I can't drive one signal from multiple processes (at least in the way I wanted it to work).

Answer 1

If you want to synthesize your design for a real FPGA or ASIC, you are going to have to think of VHDL in terms of real hardware (wires, flip flops, gates, etc.). Also, if you want to perform a real rising edge detect in hardware, you will need a system clock that drives a flip flop. Given your original code sample, it doesn't seem that zbroji or oduzmi are system clocks, but just std_logic signals. I wrote this code example assuming basic functionality from your example, hopefully, you can take my code and comments and accomplish what you need.

library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;

entity example is
  port (Reset      : in  std_logic;
        SysClk     : in  std_logic;
        zbroji     : in  std_logic;
        oduzmi     : in  std_logic;
        ulaz_broj  : in  std_logic;
        oduzima    : out std_logic;
        ucitanPrvi : out std_logic;
        broj1      : out std_logic
        );

end example;

architecture Behavioral of example is

  -- Delayed version of input signals (1 clock cycle delay)
  signal zbroji_d : std_logic;
  signal oduzmi_d : std_logic;

  signal zbrojiRE : std_logic;
  signal oduzmiRE : std_logic;

begin

  -- Generate 1 clock cycle delayed version of
  -- signals we want to detect the rising edge
  -- Assumes active high reset
  -- Note: You should only use the rising_edge macro
  -- on an actual global or regional clock signal. FPGA's and
  -- ASICs place timing constraints on defined clock signals
  -- that make it possible to use rising_edge, otherwise, we have
  -- to generate our own rising edge signals by comparing delayed
  -- versions of a signal with the current signal.
  -- Also, with any respectable synthesizer / simulator using
  -- rising_edge is almos exactly the same as (clk'event and clk='1')
  -- except rising_edge only returns a '1' when the clock makes a
  -- valid '0' to '1' transition. (see link below)
  EdgeDetectProc : process (Reset, SysClk)
  begin
    if Reset = '1' then
      zbroji_d <= '0';
      oduzmi_d <= '0';
    elsif rising_edge(SysClk) then
      zbroji_d <= zbroji;
      oduzmi_d <= oduzmi;
    end if;
  end process EdgeDetectProc;

  -- Assert risinge edge signals for one clock cycle 
  zbrojiRE <= '1' when zbroji = '1' and zbroji_d = '0' else '0';
  oduzmiRE <= '1' when oduzmi = '1' and oduzmi_d = '0' else '0';

  -- Assumes that you want a single cycle pulse on ucitanPrvi on the
  -- rising edege of zbroji or oduzmi;
  ucitanPrvi <= zbrojiRE or oduzmiRE;

  -- Based on your example, I can't tell what you want to do with the
  -- broj1 signal, but this logic will drive broj1 with ulaz_broj on
  -- either the zbroji or oduzmi rising edge, otherwise '0'.
  broj1 <= ulaz_broj when zbrojiRE = '1' else
           ulaz_broj when oduzmiRE = '1' else
           '0';

  -- Finally, it looks like you want to clear oduzima on the rising
  -- edge of zbroji and assert oduzima on the rising edge of
  -- oduzmi
  LatchProc : process (Reset, SysClk)
  begin
    if Reset = '1' then
      oduzima <= '0';
    elsif rising_edge(SysClk) then
      if zbrojiRE = '1' then
        oduzima <= '0';
      elsif oduzmiRE = '1' then
        oduzima <= '1';
      end if;
    end if;
  end process LatchProc;

end Behavioral;

The previous code assumes you have a system clock. In a simulator like ModelSim (free student edition), you can generate a 100 MHz clock with non-synthesizable testbench code like this...

ClockProc : process
begin 
   SysClk <= '0';
   wait for 5 ns;
   SysClk <= '1';
   wait for 5 ns;
end process ClockProc;

In an actual FPGA/ASIC implementation, you will probably want to use an external oscillator that you run into your chip, drive the signal into a DCM (Digital clock manager), which will output a very clean clock signal to all of your VHDL logic, so you can have a glitch free design.

And finally, here is a great explanation on the differences between rising_edge and (clk'event and clk='1')

http://vhdlguru.blogspot.com/2010/04/difference-between-risingedgeclk-and.html

Hope that helps.