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This page offers you a customisable sine wave generator. Below is a generic VHDL description of a sine wave generator. It is parameterised by constants and subtypes declared in sine_package.

Further below is a HTML form for you to specify word and address sizes for a lookup table to store the values of a sine wave. Submit the form and a short Perl script runs on this server to generate a customised sine_package complete with lookup table for you.

This implementation is moderately memory efficient because it stores only the first Pi/2 radians of sine values. The second Pi/2 radians is a mirror image of the first in time and the second Pi radians is a mirror image in amplitude of the first Pi radians.

Memory could be saved if the increments were recorded rather than each absolute value. Fewer bits per value would be needed, however, extra hardware would be needed for an adder.

-- Synthesisable design for a sine wave generator
-- Copyright Doulos Ltd
-- SD, 07 Aug 2003

library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.all;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
use work.sine_package.all;

entity sine_wave is
  port( clock, reset, enable: in std_logic;
        wave_out: out sine_vector_type);
end;

architecture arch1 of sine_wave is
  type state_type is ( counting_up, change_down, counting_down, change_up );
  signal state, next_state: state_type;
  signal table_index: table_index_type;
  signal positive_cycle: boolean;
begin

  process( clock, reset )
  begin
    if reset = '1' then
      state <= counting_up;
    elsif rising_edge( clock ) then
      if enable = '1' then
        state <= next_state;
      end if;
    end if;
  end process;

  process( state, table_index )
  begin
    next_state <= state;
    case state is
      when counting_up =>
        if table_index = max_table_index then
          next_state <= change_down;
        end if;
      when change_down =>
        next_state <= counting_down;
      when counting_down =>
        if table_index = 0 then
          next_state <= change_up;
        end if;
      when others => -- change_up
        next_state <= counting_up;
    end case;
  end process;

  process( clock, reset )
  begin
    if reset = '1' then
      table_index <= 0;
      positive_cycle <= true;
    elsif rising_edge( clock ) then
      if enable = '1' then
        case next_state is
          when counting_up =>
            table_index <= table_index + 1;
          when counting_down =>
            table_index <= table_index - 1;
          when change_up =>
            positive_cycle <= not positive_cycle;
          when others =>
            -- nothing to do
        end case;
      end if;
    end if;
  end process;

  process( table_index, positive_cycle )
    variable table_value: table_value_type;
  begin
    table_value := get_table_value( table_index );
    if positive_cycle then
      wave_out <= std_logic_vector(to_signed(table_value,sine_vector_type'length));
    else
      wave_out <= std_logic_vector(to_signed(-table_value,sine_vector_type'length));
    end if;
  end process;

end;

Lookup Table

We will use a short Perl script to generate a lookup table in a package, sine_package. Specify a word size and address size suitable for your application. Values of 8 and 7 will generate a ROM of size 256 bytes.

Lookup table word size
Lookup table address size

 

Test Bench

Download an example sine wave generator with a test bench: sine_testbench.zip

We have bundled a simple testbench to show how this code works. There's also a Tcl script called go.tcl to drive ModelSim for you. Here's what the output looks like in ModelSim.

Synthesis

Most synthesis tools recognize the case statement in function get_table_value as a ROM.