Generate statement inside verilog task

Question

I want to use generate statement inside a task. The following code is giving compile errors (iverilog).

task write_mem; //for generic use with 8, 16 and 32 bit mem writes
      input [WIDTH-1:0] data;
      input [WIDTH-1:0] addr;
      output [WIDTH-1:0] MEM;
      integer i;

      begin
         generate
            genvar j;
            for(j=0; j<i;j++)
            MEM[addr+(i-j-1)] = data[(j*8):((j*8) + 8)-1];
         endgenerate
      end
endtask // write_mem

I also tried putting generate just after the line integer i, but still its producing errors. Any thoughts?

EDIT: I also tried putting genvar declaration between begin and generate statement in the above code. Its still producing compiler errors

Thanks in advance,

Jay Aurabind

Answer 1

What you are trying is not possible - a generate region (generate..endgenerate block) is only allowed in the module description (aka "top level"), i.e. the same level where you have parameters, wires, always- and inital-regions, etc. (see Syntax 12-5 in the IEEE Std. 1364-2005). Within a task a generate region is e.g. as invalid as an assign statement.

However, you can use a non-generate for-loop in a task (this is also synthesizeable).

Either way, you can not count from 0 to i-1 in synthesizeable code as 'i' is not constant. Also note that j++ is not valid verilog, you must write j=j+1 instead. Finally you probably want to use a nonblocking assignment (<=) instead of a blocking assignment (=), but this depends on how you intent to use this task.