Verilog: Seven Segment Display Decoder

This code will take a four bit number and decode it into the seven individual segments to drive a seven segment display. nIn is the four bit number to be decoded and ssOut is the array of segments for the display going from a, being the LSB, to g being the MSB.

Change Log:
11/1/2010: Added default case statement to prevent possible latching.


23 thoughts on “Verilog: Seven Segment Display Decoder

  1. You should add a default case and set the value the outputs to some arbitrary values. otherwise it may synthesize to an unintentional latch.

  2. Thanks, mate – I’ve been coding one of these to be a poor-man’s logic analyser using a Xilinx CPLD. Was driving myself crazy trying to do it from scratch using NAND gates, thought it *must* be easier with a simple if/else|switch – and you have proved that it is so. One for my Library of Handy Verilog Snippets.

    • This example would be what you need to add to a ucf file if you were to use the Digilent PmodSSD, a dual seven segment display, and connect it to J1 & J2 of a Spartan 3E Starter Kit. To use this with a different port or on your own custom board all you would need to do is change the LOC = “…” to what ever IO pins you plan on using.

      NET "nIn<0>" LOC = "L13" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | PULLUP ;
      NET "nIn<1>" LOC = "L14" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | PULLUP ;
      NET "nIn<2>" LOC = "H18" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | PULLUP ;
      NET "nIn<3>" LOC = "N17" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | PULLUP ;

      #NET "ssOut<0>" LOC = "B4" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<1>" LOC = "A4" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<2>" LOC = "D5" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<3>" LOC = "C5" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<4>" LOC = "A6" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<5>" LOC = "B6" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;
      #NET "ssOut<6>" LOC = "E7" | IOSTANDARD = LVTTL | SLEW = SLOW | DRIVE = 6 ;

    • Zakee,

      I think this will answer your question.

      The input iIn is given as a 4-bit binary number. With a 4-bit binary number you can represent values from 0 to 15, these values are typicality show in hexadecimal using a combination of 0 through 9 and A through F ie: 0, 1, 2, … 8, 9, A, B, … E, F. By using this module connected up to a seven segment display, the display will show the number or letter that is represented by the 4-bit binary number.

  3. How can i design a decoder for two digit? I mean if i want to count from 00 to FF and see it in my seven segment?

    • There are two ways in which this can be accomplished. Given that you have a 8-bit number you can take two of the seven segment display decoder modules above and attach bits 7 through 4 to one module and bits 3 through 0 to another module. Then attach the outputs of these to two individual seven segment displays. They second way and more compact way would be to feed the 8-bit number into a dual seven segment display decoder and connect the output of the module to display like this, along with a clock going to the clock input of the module and the CAT pin on the display.

  4. I tried it. It didn’t worked. All I can see in my display is count like 00, 11, 22, 33 till FF. Rather i want to see count like 00, 01, 02, 03 till FF.
    @daniel : can you give me your email id, I can forward you my code or I can post here. Whatever suits you.

  5. hello i am been working for a project with i want to display 00 01, 02 ,,,,, but i can only get . 00, 11, 22, 33 till FF. i wish you can help me my email is
    i would like to help me with this problem
    thank you

    • Mario, you would need to put the binary number into a binary-coded decimal (BCD) decoder. This will break up the binary encoded number into multiple four-bit BCD numbers, ranging from 0 to 9, one for each decimal place ie: ones, tens, hundreds, and so on. Then you can feed each of the BCD numbers into a seven segment decoder and then drive an LED display. This will make a good post, so give me a day or two and I will probably have some BCD decoder code posted.

  6. Pingback: Binary to Binary-Coded Decimal (BCD) Converter | Death by Logic

  7. for active low:

    4’h0: ssOut = 7’b1000000;
    4’h1: ssOut = 7’b1111001;
    4’h2: ssOut = 7’b0100100;
    4’h3: ssOut = 7’b0110000;
    4’h4: ssOut = 7’b0011001;
    4’h5: ssOut = 7’b0010010;
    4’h6: ssOut = 7’b0000010;
    4’h7: ssOut = 7’b1111000;
    4’h8: ssOut = 7’b0000000;
    4’h9: ssOut = 7’b0011000;
    4’hA: ssOut = 7’b0001000;
    4’hB: ssOut = 7’b0000011;
    4’hC: ssOut = 7’b1000110;
    4’hD: ssOut = 7’b0100001;
    4’hE: ssOut = 7’b0000110;
    4’hF: ssOut = 7’b0001110;
    default: ssOut = 7’b0110110;

Leave a Reply to zakee fancy Cancel reply
