Question

What does it mean to do a negation of a bit vector in VHDL? For example if I have 10100111 which is a bit vector called temp and I do something like temp := not temp what will my output be?

Answer 1

You can use “not” on vectors. Just run the program below with ModelSim or ISim and the inverted/negated bit vector will be printed in the console.

LIBRARY ieee;
USE ieee.numeric_bit.ALL;

entity test is
end entity test;

architecture beh of test is

    function vec_image(arg : bit_vector) return string is
        -- original author Mike Treseler (http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/reszotzl/)
        -- recursive function call turns ('1','0','1') into "101"
        -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        constant arg_norm        : bit_vector(1 to arg'length) := arg;
        constant center          : natural := 2;     --  123
        variable bit_image       : string(1 to 3);   --  '0'
        variable just_the_number : character;
    begin
        if (arg'length > 0) then
            bit_image       := bit'image(arg_norm(1));   -- 3 chars: '0'
            just_the_number := bit_image(center);              -- 1 char    0
            return just_the_number                          -- first digit
            & vec_image(arg_norm(2 to arg_norm'length)); -- rest the same way
            else
            return ""; -- until "the rest" is nothing
        end if;
    end function vec_image;
begin

    demo:process is
        variable bitvec : bit_vector (7 downto 0) := "10100111";
    begin
        report vec_image(bitvec);
        report vec_image(not bitvec); -- not bit vector
        wait;
    end process demo;

end architecture beh;