Clocks are special objects in SystemC. They are used for generating clocks, that are used for synchronizing the events in SystemC models link in any other HDL.

A clock object has a number of data members to store clock settings, and methods to perform clock actions. To create a clock object use the following syntax:

sc_clock clock("my_clock", 10, 0.5, 1, false);

This declaration will create a clock object named clock with a period of 10 time units, a duty cycle of 50%, the first edge will occur at 1 time units, and the first value will be false. All of these arguments have default values except for the clock name. The period defaults to 1, the duty cycle to 0.5, the first edge to 0, and the first value to true.

Typically clocks are created at the top level of the design in the testbench and passed down through the module hierarchy to the rest of the design.

When binding the clock to a port the designer must use the clock signal generated by the clock object to map to a port. This done by using the signal method of the clock object.

For SC_CTHREAD processes the clock object is directly mapped to the clock input of the process and the signal() method is not required.

Below example is same as what we saw in last page, only difference is we have replaced the manual clock with sc_clock signal and used clock.signal() method at port binding.

   1 #include <systemc.h>
   2 
   3 SC_MODULE (some_block) {
   4   sc_in<bool>   clock;
   5   sc_in<sc_bit> data;
   6   sc_in<sc_bit> reset;
   7   sc_in<sc_bit> inv;
   8   sc_out<sc_bit> out;
   9 
  10   void body () {
  11     if (reset.read() == 1) {
  12       out = sc_bit(0);
  13     } else if (inv.read() == 1) {
  14       out = ~out.read();
  15     } else {
  16       out.write(data.read());
  17     }
  18   }
  19    
  20   SC_CTOR(some_block) {
  21     SC_METHOD(body);
  22       sensitive << clock.pos();
  23   }
  24 };
  25 
  26 
  27 SC_MODULE (signal_bind) {
  28   sc_in<bool> clock;
  29 
  30   sc_signal<sc_bit> data;
  31   sc_signal<sc_bit> reset;
  32   sc_signal<sc_bit> inv;
  33   sc_signal<sc_bit> out;
  34   some_block *block;
  35   int  done;
  36 
  37   void do_test() {
  38     while (true) {
  39       wait();
  40       if (done == 0) {
  41         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" Starting test"<<endl;
  42         wait();
  43         wait();
  44         inv = sc_bit('0');
  45         data = sc_bit('0');
  46         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" Driving 0 all inputs"<<endl;
  47         // Assert reset
  48         reset = sc_bit('1');
  49         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" Asserting reset"<<endl;
  50         // Deassert reset
  51         wait();
  52         wait();
  53         reset = sc_bit('0');
  54         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" De-Asserting reset"<<endl;
  55         // Assert data
  56         wait();
  57         wait();
  58         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" Asserting data"<<endl;
  59         data = sc_bit('1');
  60         wait();
  61         wait();
  62         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" Asserting inv"<<endl;
  63         inv = sc_bit('1');
  64         wait();
  65         wait();
  66         cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() <<" De-Asserting inv"<<endl;
  67         inv = sc_bit('0');
  68         wait();
  69         wait();
  70         done = 1;
  71       }
  72     }
  73   }
  74 
  75   void monitor() {
  76     cout << "@" << sc_time_stamp() << " data :" << data 
  77       << " reset :" << reset << " inv :" 
  78       << inv << " out :" << out <<endl;
  79   }
  80 
  81   SC_CTOR(signal_bind) {
  82     block = new some_block("SOME_BLOCK");
  83     block->clock       (clock)  ;
  84     block->data        (data)   ;
  85     block->reset       (reset)  ;
  86     block->inv         (inv)    ;
  87     block->out         (out)    ;
  88     done = 0;
  89                            
  90     SC_CTHREAD(do_test,clock.pos());
  91     SC_METHOD(monitor);
  92       sensitive << data << reset << inv << out;
  93   }
  94   
  95 }; 
  96 
  97 
  98 int sc_main (int argc, char* argv[]) {
  99   sc_clock clock ("my_clock",1,0.5);
 100 
 101   signal_bind  object("SIGNAL_BIND");
 102     object.clock (clock.signal());
 103   sc_trace_file *wf = sc_create_vcd_trace_file("clock");
 104     sc_trace(wf, object.clock, "clock");
 105     sc_trace(wf, object.reset, "reset");
 106     sc_trace(wf, object.data, "data");
 107     sc_trace(wf, object.inv, "inv");
 108     sc_trace(wf, object.out, "out");
 109 
 110   sc_start(100);
 111   sc_close_vcd_trace_file(wf);
 112       
 113   cout<<"Terminating Simulation"<<endl;
 114   return 0;// Terminate simulation
 115 }

              SystemC 2.0.1 --- Oct  6 2006 19:17:37
         Copyright (c) 1996-2002 by all Contributors
                     ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 @0 s data :0 reset :0 inv :0 out :0
 WARNING: Default time step is used for VCD tracing.
 @1 ns Starting test
 @3 ns Driving 0 all inputs
 @3 ns Asserting reset
 @3 ns data :0 reset :1 inv :0 out :0
 @5 ns De-Asserting reset
 @5 ns data :0 reset :0 inv :0 out :0
 @7 ns Asserting data
 @7 ns data :1 reset :0 inv :0 out :0
 @8 ns data :1 reset :0 inv :0 out :1
 @9 ns Asserting inv
 @9 ns data :1 reset :0 inv :1 out :1
 @10 ns data :1 reset :0 inv :1 out :0
 @11 ns De-Asserting inv
 @11 ns data :1 reset :0 inv :0 out :1
 Terminating Simulation

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Deepak Kumar Tala - All rights reserved

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