An Entity defines the interface of a design unit. The elements of an entity are:

• Name of the entity
• Generic parameters
• Ports (connections of the entity)
  • The most popular port types are in, out, and inout.

The architecture specifies the behavior of an entity. An entity can be bonded to several architectures. Each architecture sees all the elements (ports, parameters) of the entity.

A component consists of an entity and architecture pair. A component must first be declared. The declaration is a ‘virtual’ action, a declared component is doing nothing until it is instantiated.

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