Standard Verilog primitives like nand and not may not always be easy or sufficient to represent complex logic. New primitive elements called UDP or user-defined primitives can be defined to model combinational or sequential logic.

All UDPs have exactly one output that can be either 0, 1 or X and never Z (not supported). Any input that has the value Z will be treated as X.

Verilog UDP Symbols

Verilog user defined primitives can be written at the same level as module definitions, but never between module and endmodule. They can have many input ports but always one output port, and bi-directional ports are not valid. All port signals have to be scalar which means they have to be 1-bit wide.

Hardware behavior is described as a primitive state table which lists out different possible combination of inputs and their corresponding output within table and endtable. Values of input and output signals are indicated using the following symbols.

SymbolComments
0Logic 0
1Logic 1
xUnknown, can be either logic 0 or 1. Can be used as input/output or current state of sequential UDPs
?Logic 0, 1 or x. Cannot be output of any UDP
-No change, only allowed in output of a UDP
abChange in value from a to b where a or b is either 0, 1, or x
*Same as ??, indicates any change in input value
rSame as 01 -> rising edge on input
fSame as 10 -> falling edge on input
pPotential positive edge on input; either 0->1, 0->x, or x->1
nPotential falling edge on input; either 1->0, x->0, 1->x

Combinational UDP Example


// Output should always be the first signal in port list
primitive mux (out, sel, a, b);
	output 	out;
	input 	sel, a, b;
	
	table
		// sel 	a 	b 		out
			0 	1 	? 	: 	1;
			0 	0 	? 	: 	0;
			1 	? 	0 	: 	0;
			1 	? 	1 	: 	1;
			x 	0 	0 	: 	0;
			x 	1 	1 	: 	1;
	endtable
endprimitive

A ? indicates that the signal can be either 0, 1 or x and does not matter in deciding the final output.

Shown below is a testbench module that instantiates the UDP and applies input stimuli to it.


module tb;
  reg 	sel, a, b;
  reg [2:0] dly;
  wire 	out;
  integer i;
  
  // Instantiate the UDP - note that UDPs cannot
  // be instantiated with port name connection
  mux u_mux ( out, sel, a, b);
  
  initial begin
    a <= 0;
    b <= 0;
    
    $monitor("[T=%0t] a=%0b b=%0b sel=%0b out=%0b", $time, a, b, sel, out);
    
    // Drive a, b, and sel after different random delays
    for (i = 0; i < 10; i = i + 1) begin
      	dly = $random;
      #(dly) a <= $random;
      	dly = $random;
      #(dly) b <= $random;
      	dly = $random;
      #(dly) sel <= $random;
    end
  end
endmodule
verilog udp mux
 Simulation Log
xcelium> run
[T=0] a=0 b=0 sel=x out=0
[T=4] a=1 b=0 sel=x out=x
[T=5] a=1 b=1 sel=x out=1
[T=10] a=1 b=1 sel=1 out=1
[T=15] a=0 b=1 sel=1 out=1
[T=28] a=0 b=0 sel=1 out=0
[T=33] a=0 b=0 sel=0 out=0
[T=38] a=1 b=0 sel=0 out=1
[T=40] a=1 b=1 sel=0 out=1
[T=51] a=1 b=1 sel=1 out=1
[T=54] a=0 b=0 sel=1 out=0
[T=62] a=1 b=0 sel=1 out=0
[T=67] a=1 b=1 sel=1 out=1
[T=72] a=0 b=1 sel=1 out=1
[T=80] a=0 b=1 sel=0 out=0
[T=84] a=0 b=0 sel=0 out=0
[T=85] a=1 b=0 sel=0 out=1
xmsim: *W,RNQUIE: Simulation is complete.

Sequential UDP Example

Sequential logic can be either level-sensitive or edge-sensitive and hence there are two kinds of sequential UDPs. Output port should also be declared as reg type within the UDP definition and can be optionally initialized within an initial statement.

Sequential UDPs have an additional field in between the input and output field which is delimited by a : which represents the current state.

Level-Sensitive UDPs


primitive d_latch (q, clk, d);
	output 	q;
	input 	clk, d;
	reg  	q;
	
	table
		// clk 	d 		q 	q+
			1 	1 	:	? :	1;
			1 	0 	: 	? : 0;
			0 	? 	: 	? : -;
	endtable
endprimitive

In the above table, a hyphen - on the last row of the table indicates no change in value for q+.


module tb;
  reg clk, d;
  reg [1:0] dly;
  wire q;
  integer i;
  
  d_latch u_latch (q, clk, d);
  
  always #10 clk = ~clk;
  
  initial begin
    clk = 0;
    
    $monitor ("[T=%0t] clk=%0b d=%0b q=%0b", $time, clk, d, q); 
    
    #10;  // To see the effect of X
    
    for (i = 0; i < 50; i = i+1) begin
      dly = $random;
      #(dly) d <= $random;
    end
    
    #20 $finish;
  end
endmodule
verilog udp latch
 Simulation Log
xcelium> run
[T=0] clk=0 d=x q=x
[T=10] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=13] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=14] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=17] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=20] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=28] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=30] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=38] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=39] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=40] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=42] clk=0 d=0 q=1
[T=47] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=50] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=55] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=59] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=60] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=61] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=64] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=67] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=70] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=73] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=74] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=77] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=79] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=80] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=84] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=86] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=87] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=90] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=91] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=100] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=110] clk=1 d=0 q=0
Simulation complete via $finish(1) at time 111 NS + 0

Edge-Sensitive UDPs

A D flip-flop is modeled as a Verilog user-defined primitive in the example shown below. Note that rising edge of the clock is specified by 01 or 0?


primitive d_flop (q, clk, d);
	output  q;
	input 	clk, d;
	reg 	q;
	
	table
		// clk 		d 	 	q 		q+
			// obtain output on rising edge of clk
			(01)	0 	: 	? 	: 	0;
			(01) 	1 	: 	? 	: 	1;
			(0?) 	1 	: 	1 	: 	1;
			(0?) 	0 	: 	0 	: 	0;
			
			// ignore negative edge of clk
			(?0) 	? 	: 	? 	: 	-;
			
			// ignore data changes on steady clk
			? 		(??): 	? 	: 	-;
	endtable
endprimitive

In the testbench, the UDP is instantiated and driven with random d input values after random number of clocks.


module tb;
  reg clk, d;
  reg [1:0] dly;
  wire q;
  integer i;
  
  d_flop u_flop (q, clk, d);
  
  always #10 clk = ~clk;
  
  initial begin
    clk = 0;
    
    $monitor ("[T=%0t] clk=%0b d=%0b q=%0b", $time, clk, d, q); 
    
    #10;  // To see the effect of X
    
    for (i = 0; i < 20; i = i+1) begin
      dly = $random;
      repeat(dly) @(posedge clk);
      d <= $random;
    end
    
    #20 $finish;
  end
endmodule

It can be seen from the image that the output q follows the input d after 1 clock delay which is the desired behavior for a D flip-flop.

verilog udp d flip flop
 Simulation Log
xcelium> run
[T=0] clk=0 d=x q=x
[T=10] clk=1 d=1 q=x
[T=20] clk=0 d=1 q=x
[T=30] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=40] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=50] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=60] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=70] clk=1 d=0 q=1
[T=80] clk=0 d=0 q=1
[T=90] clk=1 d=1 q=0
[T=100] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=110] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=120] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=130] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=140] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=150] clk=1 d=0 q=1
[T=160] clk=0 d=0 q=1
[T=170] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=180] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=190] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=200] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=210] clk=1 d=1 q=0
[T=220] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=230] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=240] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=250] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=260] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=270] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=280] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=290] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=300] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=310] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=320] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=330] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=340] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=350] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=360] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=370] clk=1 d=0 q=1
[T=380] clk=0 d=0 q=1
[T=390] clk=1 d=0 q=0
[T=400] clk=0 d=0 q=0
[T=410] clk=1 d=1 q=0
[T=420] clk=0 d=1 q=0
[T=430] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=440] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=450] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=460] clk=0 d=1 q=1
[T=470] clk=1 d=1 q=1
[T=480] clk=0 d=1 q=1
Simulation complete via $finish(1) at time 490 NS + 0