Introduction

In SpinalHDL you can define your state machine like in VHDL/Verilog, by using enumerations and switch cases statements. But in SpinalHDL you can also use a dedicated syntax.

The following state machine is implemented in following examples :

Style A :

import spinal.lib.fsm._

class TopLevel extends Component {
  val io = new Bundle{
    val result = out Bool
  }

  val fsm = new StateMachine{
    val counter = Reg(UInt(8 bits)) init (0)
    io.result := False

    val stateA : State = new State with EntryPoint{
      whenIsActive (goto(stateB))
    }
    val stateB : State = new State{
      onEntry(counter := 0)
      whenIsActive {
        counter := counter + 1
        when(counter === 4){
          goto(stateC)
        }
      }
      onExit(io.result := True)
    }
    val stateC : State = new State{
      whenIsActive (goto(stateA))
    }
  }
}

Style B :

import spinal.lib.fsm._

class TopLevel extends Component {
  val io = new Bundle{
    val result = out Bool
  }

  val fsm = new StateMachine{
    val stateA = new State with EntryPoint
    val stateB = new State
    val stateC = new State

    val counter = Reg(UInt(8 bits)) init (0)
    io.result := False

    stateA
      .whenIsActive (goto(stateB))

    stateB
      .onEntry(counter := 0)
      .whenIsActive {
        counter := counter + 1
        when(counter === 4){
          goto(stateC)
        }
      }
      .onExit(io.result := True)

    stateC
      .whenIsActive (goto(stateA))
  }
}

StateMachine

StateMachine is the base class that will manage the logic of your FSM.

val myFsm = new StateMachine{
  // Here will come states definition
}

The StateMachine class also provide some utils :

Name Return Description
isActive(state) Bool Return True when the state machine is in the given state
isEntering(state) Bool Return True when the state machine is entering the given state

States

There is multiple kinds of states that you can use.

  • State (the base one)
  • StateDelay
  • StateFsm
  • StateParallelFsm

In each of them you have access the following utilities :

Name Description
onEntry{
  yourStatements
}		 yourStatements is executed the cycle before entering the state
onExit{
  yourStatements
}		 yourStatements is executed when the state machine will be in another state the next cycle
whenIsActive{
  yourStatements
}		 yourStatements is executed when the state machine is in the state
whenIsNext{
  yourStatements
}		 yourStatements is executed when the state machine will be in the state the next cycle
goto(nextState) Set the state of the state machine by nextState
exit() Set the state of the state machine to the boot one

For example, the following state could be defined in SpinalHDL by using the following syntax :

val stateB : State = new State{
  onEntry(counter := 0)
  whenIsActive {
    counter := counter + 1
    when(counter === 4){
      goto(stateC)
    }
  }
  onExit(io.result := True)
}

You can also define your state as the entry point of the state machine by extends the EntryPoint trait.

val stateA: State = new State with EntryPoint {
  whenIsActive {
    goto(stateB)
  }
}

StateDelay

StateDelay allow you to create a state which wait a fixed number of cycles before executing statments in your whenCompleted{...}. The standard way to write it is :

val stateG : State = new StateDelay(cyclesCount=40){
  whenCompleted{
    goto(stateH)
  }
}

But you can also write it like that :

val stateG : State = new StateDelay(40){whenCompleted(goto(stateH))}

StateFsm

StateFsm Allow you to describe a state which contains a nested state machine. When the nested state machine is done, your statments in whenCompleted{...} are executed.

There is an example of StateFsm definition :

val stateC = new StateFsm(fsm=internalFsm()){
  whenCompleted{
    goto(stateD)
  }
}

As you can see in the precedent code, it use a internalFsm function to create the inner state machine. There is an example of definition bellow :

def internalFsm() = new StateMachine {
  val counter = Reg(UInt(8 bits)) init (0)

  val stateA: State = new State with EntryPoint {
    whenIsActive {
      goto(stateB)
    }
  }

  val stateB: State = new State {
    onEntry (counter := 0)
    whenIsActive {
      when(counter === 4) {
        exit()
      }
      counter := counter + 1
    }
  }
}

In the precedent example, the exit() call will make the state machine jump to the boot state (a internal hidden state). This notify the StateFsm about the completion of the inner state machine.

StateParallelFsm

This state is able to handle multiple nested state machines. When all nested state machine are done, your statments in whenCompleted{...} are executed.

There is an example of declaration :

val stateD = new StateParallelFsm (internalFsmA(), internalFsmB()){
  whenCompleted{
    goto(stateE)
  }
}
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