# Function Arrays¶

When dealing with several related Boolean functions, it is usually convenient to index the inputs and outputs. For this purpose, PyEDA includes a multi-dimensional array (MDA) data type, called an farray (function array).

The most pervasive example is computation involving any numeric data type. For example, let’s say you want to add two numbers $$A$$, and $$B$$. If these numbers are 32-bit integers, there are 64 total inputs, not including a carry-in. The conventional way of labeling the input variables is $$a_0, a_1, a_2, \ldots$$, and $$b_0, b_1, b_2, \ldots$$.

Furthermore, you can extend the symbolic algebra of Boolean functions to arrays. For example, the element-wise XOR of $$A$$ and $$B$$ is also an array

This chapter will explain how to construct and manipulate arrays of Boolean functions. Typical examples will be one-dimensional vectors, but you can shape your data into several dimensions if you like. We have purposefully adopted many of the conventions used by the numpy.array module.

The code examples in this chapter assume that you have already prepared your terminal by importing all interactive symbols from PyEDA:

>>> from pyeda.inter import *


## Construction¶

There are three ways to construct farray instances:

1. Use the farray class constructor.
2. Use one of the zeros/ones/vars factory functions.
3. Use the unsigned/signed integer conversion functions.

### Constructor¶

First, create a few expression variables:

>>> a, b, c, d = map(exprvar, 'abcd')


To store these variables in an array, invoke the farray constructor on a sequence:

>>> vs = farray([a, b, c, d])
>>> vs
farray([a, b, c, d])
>>> vs[2]
c


Now let’s store some arbitrary functions into an array. Create six expressions using the secondary operators:

>>> f0 = Nor(a, b, c)
>>> f1 = Nand(a, b, c)
>>> f2 = Xor(a, b, c)
>>> f3 = Xnor(a, b, c)
>>> f4 = Equal(a, b, c)
>>> f5 = Unequal(a, b, c)


To neatly store these six functions in an farray, invoke the constructor like we did before:

>>> F = farray([f0, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5])
>>> F
farray([Nor(a, b, c), Nand(a, b, c), Xor(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c), Equal(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)])


This is sufficient for 1-D arrays, but the farray constructor can create mult-dimensional arrays as well. You can apply shape to the input array by either using a nested sequence, or manually using the shape parameter.

To create a 2x3 array using a nested sequence:

>>> F = farray([[f0, f2, f4], [f1, f3, f5]])
>>> F
farray([[Nor(a, b, c), Xor(a, b, c), Equal(a, b, c)],
[Nand(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)]])
>>> F.shape
((0, 2), (0, 3))
>>> F.size
6
>>> F[0,1]
Xor(a, b, c)


Similarly for a 3x2 array:

>>> F = farray([[f0, f1], [f2, f3], [f4, f5]])
>>> F
farray([[Nor(a, b, c), Nand(a, b, c)],
[Xor(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c)],
[Equal(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)]])
>>> F.shape
((0, 3), (0, 2))
>>> F.size
6
>>> F[0,1]
Nand(a, b, c)


Use the shape parameter to manually impose a shape. It takes a tuple of dimension specs, which are (start, stop) tuples.

>>> F = farray([f0, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5], shape=((0, 2), (0, 3)))
>>> F
farray([[Nor(a, b, c), Xor(a, b, c), Equal(a, b, c)],
[Nand(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)]])


Internally, function arrays are stored in a flat list. You can retrieve the items by using the flat iterator:

>>> list(F.flat)
[Nor(a, b, c),
Nand(a, b, c),
Xor(a, b, c),
Xnor(a, b, c),
Equal(a, b, c),
Unequal(a, b, c)]


Use the reshape method to return a new farray with the same contents and size, but with different dimensions:

>>> F.reshape(3, 2)
farray([[Nor(a, b, c), Nand(a, b, c)],
[Xor(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c)],
[Equal(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)]])


#### Empty Arrays¶

It is possible to create an empty farray, but only if you supply the ftype parameter. That parameter is not necessary for non-empty arrays, because it can be automatically determined.

For example:

>>> empty = farray([], ftype=Expression)
>>> empty
farray([])
>>> empty.shape
((0, 0),)
>>> empty.size
0


#### Irregular Shapes¶

Without the shape parameter, array dimensions will be created with start index zero. This is fine for most applications, but in digital design it is sometimes useful to create arrays with irregular starting points.

Going back to the previous example, let’s say for some reason we wanted a shape of ((7, 9), (13, 16)). Just change the shape parameter:

>>> F = farray([f0, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5], shape=((7, 9), (13, 16)))
>>> F
farray([[Nor(a, b, c), Xor(a, b, c), Equal(a, b, c)],
[Nand(a, b, c), Xnor(a, b, c), Unequal(a, b, c)]])


The size property is still the same:

>>> F.size
6


However, the slices now have different bounds:

>>> F.shape
((7, 9), (13, 16))
>>> F[7,14]
Nand(a, b, c)


### Factory Functions¶

For convenience, PyEDA provides factory functions for producing arrays with arbitrary shape initialized to all zeros, all ones, or all variables with incremental indices.

The functions for creating arrays of zeros are:

For example, to create a 4x4 farray of expression zeros:

>>> zeros = exprzeros(4, 4)
>>> zeros
farray([[0, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 0]])


The variadic dims input is a sequence of dimension specs. A dimension spec is a two-tuple: (start index, stop index). If a dimension is given as a single int, it will be converted to (0, stop).

For example:

>>> zeros = bddzeros((1, 3), (2, 4), 2)
>>> zeros
farray([[[0, 0],
[0, 0]],

[[0, 0],
[0, 0]]])


Similarly for creating arrays of ones:

The functions for creating arrays of variables are:

These functions behave similarly to the zeros/ones functions, but take a name argument as well.

For example, to create a 4x4 farray of expression variables:

>>> A = exprvars('a', 4, 4)
>>> A
farray([[a[0,0], a[0,1], a[0,2], a[0,3]],
[a[1,0], a[1,1], a[1,2], a[1,3]],
[a[2,0], a[2,1], a[2,2], a[2,3]],
[a[3,0], a[3,1], a[3,2], a[3,3]]])


The name argument accepts a tuple of names, just like the exprvar function, and the variadic dims input also supports irregular shapes:

>>> A = exprvars(('a', 'b', 'c'), (1, 3), (2, 4), 2)
>>> A
farray([[[c.b.a[1,2,0], c.b.a[1,2,1]],
[c.b.a[1,3,0], c.b.a[1,3,1]]],

[[c.b.a[2,2,0], c.b.a[2,2,1]],
[c.b.a[2,3,0], c.b.a[2,3,1]]]])


### Integer Conversion¶

The previous section discussed ways to initialize arrays to all zeros or ones. It is also possible to create one-dimensional arrays that represent integers using either the unsigned or twos-complement notations.

The following functions convert an unsigned integer to a 1-D farray:

The following functions convert a signed integer to a 1-D farray:

The signature for these functions are all identical. The num argument is the int to convert, and the length parameter is optional. Unsigned conversion will always zero-extend to the provided length, and signed conversion will always sign-extend.

Here are a few examples of converting integers to expressions:

>>> uint2exprs(42, 8)
farray([0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0])
>>> int2exprs(42, 8)
farray([0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0])
# A nifty one-liner to verify the previous conversions
>>> bin(42)[2:].zfill(8)[::-1]
'01010100'
>>> int2exprs(-42, 8)
farray([0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1])


Function arrays also have to_uint and to_int methods to perform the reverse computation. They do not, however, have any property to indicate whether the array represents signed data. So always know what the encoding is ahead of time. For example:

>>> int2exprs(-42, 8).to_int()
-42
>>> int2exprs(-42, 8).to_uint()
214


## Slicing¶

The farray type accepts two types of slice arguments:

• Integral indices
• Muliplexor selects

### Integral Indices¶

Function arrays support a slice syntax that mostly follows the numpy ndarray data type. The primary difference is that farray supports nonzero start indices.

To demonstrate the various capabilities, let’s create some arrays. For simplicity, we will only use zero indexing.

>>> A = exprvars('a', 4)
>>> B = exprvars('b', 4, 4, 4)


Using a single integer index will collapse an array dimension. For 1-D arrays, this means returning an item.

>>> A[2]
a[2]
>>> B[2]
farray([[b[2,0,0], b[2,0,1], b[2,0,2], b[2,0,3]],
[b[2,1,0], b[2,1,1], b[2,1,2], b[2,1,3]],
[b[2,2,0], b[2,2,1], b[2,2,2], b[2,2,3]],
[b[2,3,0], b[2,3,1], b[2,3,2], b[2,3,3]]])
>>> B[2].shape
((0, 4), (0, 4))


The colon : slice syntax shrinks a dimension:

>>> A[:]
farray([a[0], a[1], a[2], a[3]])
>>> A[1:]
farray([a[1], a[2], a[3]])
>>> A[:3]
farray([a[0], a[1], a[2]])
>>> B[1:3]
farray([[[b[1,0,0], b[1,0,1], b[1,0,2], b[1,0,3]],
[b[1,1,0], b[1,1,1], b[1,1,2], b[1,1,3]],
[b[1,2,0], b[1,2,1], b[1,2,2], b[1,2,3]],
[b[1,3,0], b[1,3,1], b[1,3,2], b[1,3,3]]],

[[b[2,0,0], b[2,0,1], b[2,0,2], b[2,0,3]],
[b[2,1,0], b[2,1,1], b[2,1,2], b[2,1,3]],
[b[2,2,0], b[2,2,1], b[2,2,2], b[2,2,3]],
[b[2,3,0], b[2,3,1], b[2,3,2], b[2,3,3]]]])


For N-dimensional arrays, the slice accepts up to N indices separated by a comma. Unspecified slices at the end will default to :.

>>> B[1,2,3]
b[1,2,3]
>>> B[:,2,3]
farray([b[0,2,3], b[1,2,3], b[2,2,3], b[3,2,3]])
>>> B[1,:,3]
farray([b[1,0,3], b[1,1,3], b[1,2,3], b[1,3,3]])
>>> B[1,2,:]
farray([b[1,2,0], b[1,2,1], b[1,2,2], b[1,2,3]])
>>> B[1,2]
farray([b[1,2,0], b[1,2,1], b[1,2,2], b[1,2,3]])


The ... syntax will fill available indices left to right with :. Only one ellipsis will be recognized per slice.

>>> B[...,1]
farray([[b[0,0,1], b[0,1,1], b[0,2,1], b[0,3,1]],
[b[1,0,1], b[1,1,1], b[1,2,1], b[1,3,1]],
[b[2,0,1], b[2,1,1], b[2,2,1], b[2,3,1]],
[b[3,0,1], b[3,1,1], b[3,2,1], b[3,3,1]]])
>>> B[1,...]
farray([[b[1,0,0], b[1,0,1], b[1,0,2], b[1,0,3]],
[b[1,1,0], b[1,1,1], b[1,1,2], b[1,1,3]],
[b[1,2,0], b[1,2,1], b[1,2,2], b[1,2,3]],
[b[1,3,0], b[1,3,1], b[1,3,2], b[1,3,3]]])


Function arrays support negative indices. Arrays with a zero start index follow Python’s usual conventions.

For example, here is the index guide for A[0:4]:

 +------+------+------+------+
| a[0] | a[1] | a[2] | a[3] |
+------+------+------+------+
0      1      2      3      4
-4     -3     -2     -1


And example usage:

>>> A[-1]
a[3]
>>> A[-3:-1]
farray([a[1], a[2]])


Arrays with non-zero start indices also support negative indices. For example, here is the index guide for A[3:7]:

 +------+------+------+------+
| a[3] | a[4] | a[5] | a[6] |
+------+------+------+------+
3      4      5      6      7
-4     -3     -2     -1


### Multiplexor Selects¶

A special feature of array slicing is the ability to multiplex array items over a select input. For a 2:1 mux, the select may be a single function. Otherwise, it must be an farray with enough bits.

For example, to create a simple 8:1 mux:

>>> X = exprvars('x', 8)
>>> sel = exprvars('s', 3)
>>> X[sel]
Or(And(~s[0], ~s[1], ~s[2], x[0]),
And( s[0], ~s[1], ~s[2], x[1]),
And(~s[0],  s[1], ~s[2], x[2]),
And( s[0],  s[1], ~s[2], x[3]),
And(~s[0], ~s[1],  s[2], x[4]),
And( s[0], ~s[1],  s[2], x[5]),
And(~s[0],  s[1],  s[2], x[6]),
And( s[0],  s[1],  s[2], x[7]))


This works for multi-dimensional arrays as well:

>>> s = exprvar('s')
>>> Y = exprvars('y', 2, 2, 2)
>>> Y[:,s,:]
farray([[Or(And(~s, y[0,0,0]),
And( s, y[0,1,0])),
Or(And(~s, y[0,0,1]),
And( s, y[0,1,1]))],

[Or(And(~s, y[1,0,0]),
And( s, y[1,1,0])),
Or(And(~s, y[1,0,1]),
And( s, y[1,1,1]))]])


## Operators¶

Function arrays support several operators for algebraic manipulation. Some of these operators overload Python’s operator symbols. This section will describe how you can use the farray data type and the Python interpreter to perform powerful symbolic computations.

### Unary Reduction¶

A common operation is to reduce the entire contents of an array to a single function. This is supported by the OR, AND, and XOR operators because they are 1) variadic, and 2) associative.

Unfortunately, Python has no appropriate symbols available, so unary operators are supported by the following farray methods:

For example, to OR the contents of an eight-bit array:

>>> X = exprvars('x', 8)
>>> X.uor()
Or(x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7])


One well-known usage of unary reduction is conversion from a binary-reflected gray code (BRGC) back to binary. In the following example, B is a 3-bit array that contains logic to convert the contents of G from gray code to binary. See the Wikipedia Gray Code article for background.

>>> G = exprvars('g', 3)
>>> B = farray([G[i:].uxor() for i, _ in enumerate(G)])
>>> graycode = ['000', '100', '110', '010', '011', '111', '101', '001']
>>> for gs in graycode:
...     print(B.vrestrict({X: gs}).to_uint())
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7


### Bit-wise Logic¶

Arrays are an algebraic data type. They overload several of Python’s operators to perform bit-wise logic.

First, let’s create a few arrays:

>>> A = exprvars('a', 4)
>>> B = exprvars('b', 4)
>>> C = exprvars('c', 2, 2)
>>> D = exprvars('d', 2, 2)


To invert the contents of A:

>>> ~A
farray([~a[0], ~a[1], ~a[2], ~a[3]])


Inverting a multi-dimensional array will retain its shape:

>>> ~C
farray([[~c[0,0], ~c[0,1]],
[~c[1,0], ~c[1,1]]])


The binary OR, AND, and XOR operators work for arrays with equal size:

>>> A | B
farray([Or(a[0], b[0]), Or(a[1], b[1]), Or(a[2], b[2]), Or(a[3], b[3])])
>>> A & B
farray([And(a[0], b[0]), And(a[1], b[1]), And(a[2], b[2]), And(a[3], b[3])])
>>> C ^ D
farray([[Xor(c[0,0], d[0,0]), Xor(c[0,1], d[0,1])],
[Xor(c[1,0], d[1,0]), Xor(c[1,1], d[1,1])]])


Mismatched sizes will raise an exception:

>>> A & B[2:]
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: expected operand sizes to match


For arrays of the same size but different shape, the resulting shape is ambiguous so by default the result is flattened:

>>> Y = ~A | C
>>> Y
farray([Or(~a[0], c[0,0]), Or(~a[1], c[0,1]), Or(~a[2], c[1,0]), Or(~a[3], c[1,1])])
>>> Y.size
4
>>> Y.shape
((0, 4),)


### Shifts¶

Function array have three shift methods:

The logical left/right shift operators shift out num items from the array, and optionally shift in values from a cin (carry-in) parameter. The output is a two-tuple of the shifted array, and the “carry-out”.

The “left” direction in lsh shifts towards the most significant bit. For example:

>>> X = exprvars('x', 8)
>>> X.lsh(4)
(farray([0, 0, 0, 0, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]]),
farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7]]))
>>> X.lsh(4, exprvars('y', 4))
(farray([y[0], y[1], y[2], y[3], x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]]),
farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7]]))


Similarly, the “right” direction in rsh shifts towards the least significant bit. For example:

>>> X.rsh(4)
(farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], 0, 0, 0, 0]),
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]]))
>>> X.rsh(4, exprvars('y', 4))
(farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], y[0], y[1], y[2], y[3]]),
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]]))


You can use the Python overloaded << and >> operators for lsh, and rsh, respectively. The only difference is that they do not produce a carry-out. For example:

>>> X << 4
farray([0, 0, 0, 0, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]])
>>> X >> 4
farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], 0, 0, 0, 0])


Using a somewhat awkward (num, farray) syntax, you can use these operators with a carry-in. For example:

>>> X << (4, exprvars('y', 4))
farray([y[0], y[1], y[2], y[3], x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]])
>>> X >> (4, exprvars('y', 4))
farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], y[0], y[1], y[2], y[3]])


An arithmetic right shift automatically sign-extends the array. Therefore, it does not take a carry-in. For example:

>>> X.arsh(4)
(farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], x[7], x[7], x[7], x[7]]),
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]]))


Due to its importance in digital design, Verilog has a special >>> operator for an arithmetic right shift. Sadly, Python has no such indulgence. If you really want to use a symbol, you can use the cin parameter to achieve the same effect with >>:

>>> num = 4
>>> X >> (num, num * X[-1])
farray([x[4], x[5], x[6], x[7], x[7], x[7], x[7], x[7]])


### Concatenation and Repetition¶

Two very important operators in hardware description languages are concatenation and repetition of logic vectors. For example, in this implementation of the xtime function from the AES standard, xtime[6:0] is concatenated with 1'b0, and xtime[7] is repeated eight times before being AND’ed with 8'h1b.

function automatic logic [7:0]
xtime(logic [7:0] b, int n);
xtime = b;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
xtime = {xtime[6:0], 1'b0}       // concatenation
^ (8'h1b & {8{xtime[7]}}); // repetition
endfunction


The farray data type resembles the Python tuple for these operations.

To concatenate two arrays, use the + operator:

>>> X = exprvars('x', 4)
>>> Y = exprvars('y', 4)
>>> X + Y
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], y[0], y[1], y[2], y[3]])


It is also possible to prepend or append single functions:

>>> a, b = map(exprvar, 'ab')
>>> a + X
farray([a, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]])
>>> X + b
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], b])
>>> a + X + b
farray([a, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], b])
>>> a + b
farray([a, b])


Even 0 (or False) and 1 (or True) work:

>>> 0 + X
farray([0, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]])
>>> X + True
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], 1])


To repeat arrays, use the * operator:

>>> X * 2
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3]])
>>> 0 * X
farray([])


Similarly, this works for single functions as well:

>>> a * 3
farray([a, a, a])
>>> 2 * a + b * 3
farray([a, a, b, b, b])


Multi-dimensional arrays are automatically flattened during either concatenation or repetition:

>>> Z = exprvars('z', 2, 2)
>>> X + Z
farray([x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3], z[0,0], z[0,1], z[1,0], z[1,1]])
>>> Z * 2
farray([z[0,0], z[0,1], z[1,0], z[1,1], z[0,0], z[0,1], z[1,0], z[1,1]])


If you require a more subtle treatment of the shapes, use the reshape method to unflatten things:

>>> (Z*2).reshape(2, 4)
farray([[z[0,0], z[0,1], z[1,0], z[1,1]],
[z[0,0], z[0,1], z[1,0], z[1,1]]])


Function arrays also support the “in-place” += and *= operators. The farray behaves like an immutable object. That is, it behaves more like the Python tuple than a list.

For example, when you concatenate/repeat an farray, it returns a new farray:

>>> A = exprvars('a', 4)
>>> B = exprvars('b', 4)
>>> id(A)
3050928972
>>> id(B)
3050939660
>>> A += B
>>> id(A)
3050939948
>>> B *= 2
>>> id(B)
3050940716


The A += B implementation is just syntactic sugar for:

>>> A = A + B


And the A *= 2 implementation is just syntactic sugar for:

>>> A = A * 2


To wrap up, let’s re-write the xtime function using PyEDA function arrays.

def xtime(b, n):
"""Return b^n using polynomial multiplication in GF(2^8)."""
for _ in range(n):
b = exprzeros(1) + b[:7] ^ uint2exprs(0x1b, 8) & b[7]*8
return b