Inverting Some Bits

Once Rox is installed, you can write a simple Rox program. As an example, let us write a simple component that inverts its input.

At this stage, libray and project support is not yet developed, so rox will work on source files directly. Create a file called invert.rox in your editor and type the following:

fn invert(in: unsigned(6)) -> (inverted: unsigned(6)) {
.inverted = !in;
}


The component has a six-bit input in and a six-bit output inverted. The ouput is set to the bitwise complement of the input. The details will be found in a later chapter, but to get an idea, here are the main points:

1. The list of inputs is in the brackets before the arrow ->, and the list of outputs is in the brackets after the arrow.

2. The input in and output inverted are of type unsigned(6), that is, a six-bit unsigned value. In programming languages that target typical processors, you can use specific sizes only, such as eight bits and 32 bits. In Rox, you can use any size you like.

3. To set inverted we use .inverted with a dot. This syntax is used to write to a value outside the current block, that is, outside the closest curly brackets { and }. Simply writing inverted = !in would have set an internal signal inside the block, but the ouput signal would not be set.

4. Assignment is performed using the = operator, and bitwise inversion is performed using the ! operator.

After writing this component, you can generate VHDL from the terminal:

rox invert.rox


This should generate a file called invert.vhdl.