Dealing with arrays in HDL

Question

How does one use arrays (representing busses) in HDL?

For example, I have the following code:

/**
 * 16-bit bitwise And:
 * for i = 0..15: out[i] = (a[i] and b[i])
 */

CHIP And16 {
    IN a[16], b[16];
    OUT out[16];

    PARTS:
    // Put your code here:
}

Assuming I have And already implemented, how could I implement this?

I'd rather not have the following:

And(a=a[0],b=b[0],out=out[0]);
And(a=a[1],b=b[1],out=out[1]);
...
And(a=a[14],b=b[14],out=out[14]);
And(a=a[15],b=b[15],out=out[15]);

Answer 1

There are no arrays in HDL. In section 1.3 of the nand2tetris companion book, he says

Since we already know how to implement the elementary versions of these gates, the implementation of their n-ary versions is simply a matter of constructing arrays of n elementary gates, having each gate operate separately on its bits. This implementation task is rather boring, but it will carry its weight when these multi-bit gates are used in more complex chips, as described in subsequent chapters.

So besides writing a trivial script in Python to avoid all that typing, you're not missing anything.

Answer 2

You can write the code in c(because it's the closer language to hdl that has for loops) then you can use any c to hdl tool to use your for loop in c to get your chip running without repetting the same code 16 times