You're reading an old version of this documentation.
For the latest stable release version, please have a look at master.

SpinalEnum

Description

The Enumeration type corresponds to a list of named values.

Declaration

The declaration of an enumerated data type is as follows:

object Enumeration extends SpinalEnum {
  val element0, element1, ..., elementN = newElement()
}

For the example above, the default encoding is used. Native enumeration type is used for VHDL and a binary encoding is used for Verilog.

The enumeration encoding can be forced by defining the enumeration as follows:

object Enumeration extends SpinalEnum(defaultEncoding=encodingOfYouChoice) {
  val element0, element1, ..., elementN = newElement()
}

Note

If you want to define a enumeration as in/out of a given component, you have to do as following : in(MyEnum()) out(MyEnum())

Encoding

The following enumeration encodings are supported :

Encoding

Bit width

Description

native

Use the VHDL enumeration system, this is the default encoding

binarySequancial

log2Up(stateCount)

Use Bits to store states in declaration order (value from 0 to n-1)

binaryOneHot

stateCount

Use Bits to store state. Each bit corresponds to one state

Custom encoding can be performed in two different ways: static or dynamic.

/*
 * Static encoding
 */
object MyEnumStatic extends SpinalEnum{
  val e0, e1, e2, e3 = newElement()
  defaultEncoding = SpinalEnumEncoding("staticEncoding")(
    e0 -> 0,
    e1 -> 2,
    e2 -> 3,
    e3 -> 7)
}

/*
 * Dynamic encoding with the function :  _ * 2 + 1
 *    e.g : e0 => 0 * 2 + 1 = 1
 *          e1 => 1 * 2 + 1 = 3
 *          e2 => 2 * 2 + 1 = 5
 *          e3 => 3 * 2 + 1 = 7
 */
val encoding = SpinalEnumEncoding("dynamicEncoding", _ * 2 + 1)

object MyEnumDynamic extends SpinalEnum(encoding){
  val e0, e1, e2, e3 = newElement()
}

Example

Instantiate a enumerated signal and assign a value to it :

object UartCtrlTxState extends SpinalEnum {
  val sIdle, sStart, sData, sParity, sStop = newElement()
}

val stateNext = UartCtrlTxState()
stateNext := UartCtrlTxState.sIdle

//You can also import the enumeration to have the visibility on its elements
import UartCtrlTxState._
stateNext := sIdle

Operators

The following operators are available for the Enumeration type

Comparison

Operator

Description

Return type

x === y

Equality

Bool

x =/= y

Inequality

Bool

import UartCtrlTxState._

val stateNext = UartCtrlTxState()
stateNext := sIdle

when(stateNext === sStart){

}

switch(stateNext){
  is(sIdle){

  }
  is(sStart){

  }
  ...
}

Type cast

Operator

Description

Return

x.asBits

Binary cast to Bits

Bits(w(x) bits)

x.asUInt

Binary cast to UInt

UInt(w(x) bits)

x.asSInt

Binary cast to SInt

SInt(w(x) bits)

import UartCtrlTxState._

val stateNext = UartCtrlTxState()
myBits := sIdle.asBits