This is the 4th part of the Verilog HDL notes prepared from Verilog HDL by Samir Palnitkar . It contains a broad view on behavioural modelling the second most frequently used level of abstraction needed for designing of sequential circuits.

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Notes: Verilog Part 4
7 CHAPTER 7:
7.1 STRUCTURED PROCEDURES:
7.1.1
initial statement
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7.1.2
An initial block starts at time 0 and executes only once.
If there are more than one initial blocks, they all begin at the
same time (“0”). Each block independently finishes its
execution. They must be grouped between begin and end.
They are mainly used for initialization, monitoring waveforms
and other processes that do not require simulation for more
than one time.
There are various short hand syntaxes.
For example, when variables are declared they can be initialized.
The combined port/data declaration can also be combined with
an initialization.
They can be initialized while declaring them in the port
declaration of the module statement.
INITIAL
always statement
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For programming level always works as infinite loop, but for
hardware designers this can be used as continuous activity from
the power on.
This can be used to generate the clock generator.
ALWAYS
7.2 PROCEDURAL ASSIGNMENTS
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The Syntax for the procedural assignment is as follows
assignment ::= variable_lvalue = [ delay_or_event_control ]
expression
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7.2.1
The difference between the assignment here and that in
dataflow is that in dataflow, the value of LHS operand changes
immediately with the change in the RHS value, whereas in this
case, the value of the LHS operand does not change until
another procedural assignment is observed.
Blocking assignments are executed in the order in which they
are assigned. They follow sequential flow.
The ‘=’ operator indicates sequential blocking.
Blocking Assignment
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Notes: Verilog Part 4
Prepared By: Jay Baxi

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7.2.2
Non-Blocking Assignment:
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In the Blocking Assignment Example following things are to be
noted.
All statements x = 0 through reg_b = reg_a are executed
sequentially at time = 0.
The statements reg_a[2] = 0 at time = 15.
The statement reg_b[15:13] = {x,y,z} at time = 25.
Statement count = count + 1 at time = 25 is executed last
because of delays of 15 and 10 time units in the preceding
statements .
Note that if the RHS as more bits as compared to the LHS, the
RHS is truncated to match the width of the LHS, the MSBs are
truncated and LSBs are kept as it is. However, if they have RHS
has fewer bits, zeroes are filled in the vacant places.
Nonblocking assignments allow scheduling of assignments
without blocking the execution of the statements in the
sequential block.
‘<=’ operator indicated Nonblocking assignment
In the nonblocking assignment example, following things should
be noted.
All statements x = 0 through reg_b = reg_a are executed
sequentially at time = 0.
The statements reg_a[2] = 0 at time = 15.
The statement reg_b[15:13] = {x,y,z} at time = 10.
Statement count = count + 1 at time = 0 (without any delay) is
executed last despite of delays of 15 and 10 time units in the
preceding statements.
The nonblocking assingments are used to eliminate the race
condition and in order to understand that, we illustrate the
example of SWAP.
7.3 TIMING CONTROLS
7.3.1
Delay Based Timing Control.
 It is an expression that specifies the time duration between
when the statement is encountered and executed. There are
three different types of Delay based timing control.
 1.) Regular Delay Control
 2.) Intra-Assignment Delay Control
 3.) Zero Delay Control
7.3.2
Event-Based Timing Control
 An event is the change in the value of a register or a net. Events
can be used to trigger the execution of a statement or a block of
statements. There are four types of event based timing control
 1.) Regular Event Control
Notes: Verilog Part 4
Prepared By: Jay Baxi

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2.) Named Event Control: Verilog provides the capability to
declare an event and recognize the occurrence of the event.
The event cannot hold any data.
A named event can be declared using the keyword event.
The event is triggered by the symbol -> and recognized by ‘@’
3.) Event OR Control (Use of @(*) Operator)
4.) Level-Sensitive Timing Control:
Verilog provides ability to wait for certain condition to be true in
order for a block of statement to be executed.
The keyword used is wait.
always
wait (count_enable) #20 count = count + 1;
In the above example, the value of count_enable is continuously
monitored. If it is 0, the statement is not entered. If it is logical
1, the value of count is incremented after 20 time units.
7.4 CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS:
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The conditional statements are nothing but same as if..else as
observed in the C language.
//Type 1:
if (condition) true_statement;
//Type 2:
if(condition) true_statement; else false_statement;
//Type 3:
if(condition1) true_statement1;
else if (condition2) true_statement2;
else if (conditionN) true_statementN;
else false_statement;
7.5 MULTIWAY BRANCHING:
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Notes: Verilog Part 4
The nested if-else-if becomes cumbersome if there are too
many alternatives. Hence, case comes to the rescue.
case, default and endcase are the commonly used keywords for
the case syntax.
case(condition)
alternative1: statement1;
alternative2: statement2;
alternative3: statement3;
alternativeN: statementN;
default: default_statement;
endcase
The case syntax is self-explanatory.
It compares 0,1,x or z values in the expression bit by bit.
Prepared By: Jay Baxi

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7.5.1
casex, casez keywords
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casez treats all the z valyes in the case alternatives as don’t
cares. All bit positions with z can also be represented by ? in that
postion.
casex treats all x and z values in the case as don’t cares.
7.6 LOOPS
7.6.1
For and While Loops
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7.6.2
Repeat Loop
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7.6.3
The use of while and for loop in Verilog is same as that in C
language.
The while loop continues until the condition in the while
statement is not true.
For loops provides a more compact loops structure, the
initialization and increment assignment is included in the for
loop.
While Loop
For Loop
The keyword repeat is used in a repeat loop.
This loop iterates a statement for a fixed number of times. It
cannot be used to iterate a general logical expression.
A repeat construct must contain a number, which can be a
variable, constant or a value. However, if the number is a
constant or a signal value, it is evaluated only when the loop
starts and not during the loop execution.
Repeat Loop
Forever Loop
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The keyword forever is used to express this loop.
The loops does not contain any expression and executes forever
until $finish is encountered.
This loop is equivalent to a while loop which always has a true
condition.
The loop can be disables by the use of disable statement.
This is generally used in conjunction with timing constructs, if
they are not the loop runs for infinite amount of time and no
further simulation will happen.
Forever Loop
7.7 SEQUENTIAL BLOCK AND PARALLEL BLOCKS
7.7.1
7.7.1.1
Types of Blocks
Sequential Blocks
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Notes: Verilog Part 4
They keywords begin and end are used to group sentences into
sequential block.
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7.7.1.2
They are processed in the order they are specified.
If a delay or event control is specified, it is relative to the
simulation time when the previous statement in the block
completed the execution.
They are specified by keywords fork and join.
The statements are processed concurrently.
Ordering of the statements is controlled by delay or event
control assigned to each statement.
If delay or even control is assigned it is relative to time the block
was entered.
RACE CONDITION:
Race condition comes into picture when two statements that
use same variables are executed at the same time.
In simulation time, all fork-join statements are executed at once.
Different simulators execute statements in different order. Thus
the race condition is a limitation in today’s simulators.
Parallel Blocks
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7.7.2
Features
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NESTING: A sequential and parallel blocks can be nested in the
same program.
NAMED BLOCKS: Blocks can be given names
local variables can be declared for the named block.
Named blocks are a part of design hierarchy.
They can be disabled.
DISABLING NAMED BLOCKS: The disable keyword is used to
terminate the execution of a named block.
It is used to handle error conditions, get out of the loop or
control execution of the pieces of code, based on control signal.
It is similar to break in C. The difference is break just comes out
of the loop, whereas disable can disable the entire block.
7.8 GENERATE
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Notes: Verilog Part 4
Generate statements allow Verilog code to be generated
dynamically before the simulation time begins.
This is particularly useful when same operation is to be
performed for multiple bits of vector.
All the instructions are coded within generate – endgenerate
keywords.
Generated instantiations are one or more of the following types
Modules
User Defined Primitives
Verilog Gate Primitives
Continuous Assignments
initial and always blocks.
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7.8.1
Generate Loop
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7.8.2
Various data types allowed in a generate statement to support
interconnections between structural elements and/or
procedural blocks.
net, reg
integer, real, time, realtime,
event
Tasks and Functions are allowed within a Generate Scope, but
not in a generate loop.
Some module declarations and module items are not permitted
in a generate statement are
parameter, local parameter
input, output and inout declarations
specify blocks.
There are three methods to create generate statements:
A generate loop allows one or more of the aforementioned to
be instantiated multiple times using a FOR loop.
Generate Loop.
In the above example, before the actual simulation, the code is
elaborated to create a flat representation without the generate
block. The elaborated code is simulated.
Thus generate blocks are a simply a convenient way of replacing
multiple repetitive Verilog blocks.
genvar is a keyword to declare a variable that is used only to
evaluate the generate block.
Its value can be defined only by the generate loop.
Two generate loops can be nested, provided they have different
genvars.
Generate Conditional
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7.8.3
A generate conditional is just like an if-else-if.
Parameterized Multiplier.
A generate case is just like a case statement
N-bit Adder
Generate Case
7.9 EXAMPLES:
 4-Bit Counter
 Traffic Signal Controller
Notes: Verilog Part 4
Prepared By: Jay Baxi