Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Design Recommendations

ID 683082
Date 8/03/2023
Public

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1.4.1.5. Single-Clock Synchronous RAM with Old Data Read-During-Write Behavior

The code examples in this section show Verilog HDL and VHDL code that infers simple dual-port, single-clock synchronous RAM. Single-port RAM blocks use a similar coding style.

The read-during-write behavior in these examples is to read the old data at the memory address. For best performance in MLAB memories, use the appropriate attribute so that your design does not depend on the read data during a write operation. The simple dual-port RAM code samples map directly into Intel synchronous memory.

Single-port versions of memory blocks (that is, using the same read address and write address signals) allow better RAM utilization than dual-port memory blocks, depending on the device family. Refer to the appropriate device handbook for recommendations on your target device.

Verilog HDL Single-Clock, Simple Dual-Port Synchronous RAM with Old Data Read-During-Write Behavior

module single_clk_ram( 
    output reg [7:0] q,
    input [7:0] d,
    input [4:0] write_address, read_address,
    input we, clk
);
    reg [7:0] mem [31:0];

    always @ (posedge clk) begin
        if (we)
            mem[write_address] <= d;
        q <= mem[read_address]; // q doesn't get d in this clock cycle
    end
endmodule

VHDL Single-Clock, Simple Dual-Port Synchronous RAM with Old Data Read-During-Write Behavior

LIBRARY ieee;
USE ieee.std_logic_1164.all;

ENTITY single_clock_ram IS
    PORT (
        clock: IN STD_LOGIC;
        data: IN STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 DOWNTO 0);
        write_address: IN INTEGER RANGE 0 to 31;
        read_address: IN INTEGER RANGE 0 to 31;
        we: IN STD_LOGIC;
        q: OUT STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 DOWNTO 0)
    );
END single_clock_ram;

ARCHITECTURE rtl OF single_clock_ram IS
    TYPE MEM IS ARRAY(0 TO 31) OF STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 DOWNTO 0);
    SIGNAL ram_block: MEM;
BEGIN
    PROCESS (clock)
    BEGIN
        IF (rising_edge(clock)) THEN
            IF (we = '1') THEN
                ram_block(write_address) <= data;
            END IF;
            q <= ram_block(read_address); 
            -- VHDL semantics imply that q doesn't get data 
            -- in this clock cycle
        END IF;
    END PROCESS;
END rtl;
Note: The small size of this single_clock_ram causes the Compiler to infer the memory as MLAB memory blocks, rather than M20K memory blocks. If single_clock_ram specifies a larger width, the Compiler infers the memory as M20K memory blocks.