external name for a signal inside record type

[Jorge Tonfat]

Hello!

Is it possible to use an external name in my testbench for a signal inside a record type signal?

This is my case:

My UUT has a signal like this:

type regs_type is record

        — state machine

        state:          state_type;

— other signals

end record;

regs : regs_type;

And I would like to access the state signal inside the record like this in the testbench:

alias fsm_state is  <<signal .test.uut.regs.state : state_type >>;

I get the following error from Active-HDL:

# ELAB2: Fatal Error: ELAB2_0124 TC1SPW.vhd (224): Unresolved external name:

If I make a copy of the state signal in the UUT, it works fine. Is it a VHDL 2008 restriction or a limitation of the tool?

Thanks,

[Jim Lewis]

I would try making the external name reference the entire record.  Then with a separate alias reference the state..

[Jorge Tonfat]

Dear Jim,

Thanks for the advice. It worked well. I just needed to move my record definition to a package that is visible from the UUT and my testbench. 

[fdominguez]

I follow the 2-process method from Gaisler and I had the same error with Modelsim. The report message was:

“Illegal external name. ‘uut.r.state_top’ denotes an element of an array or record.”

I took your advice in mind, I moved my record definition to a package and then I added this code to testbench:

alias uut_r_register is << signal uut.r : fsm_wg_control_regs_t >>;  

alias uut_state_top is uut_r_register.state_top;

It works well!

[Author]

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