VHDL: use the length of an integer generic to determine number of select lines

Question

I\'m trying to create a reusable barrel shifter; it takes an input array of bits and shifts them a certain number of positions (determined by another input). I want to parameter

Answer 1

You can instead of inputting the NUMBITS value as 8, input it as 2 (log2(8)), then retype as below to get around the problem, your generic just won't be as clean but it is scale-able.

entity BarrelShifter is

generic ( NUMBITS : integer :=2);                                                   
Port    ( INPUT     : in   std_logic_vector (((2**Nbits)-1) downto 0);                
          OUTPUT    : out  std_logic_vector (((2**Nbits)-1) downto 0);                
          SHIFT_CNT : in   std_logic_vector ((NUMBITS-1) downto 0)                 
        );                                                               
end BarrelShifter;