“Dead code” in Xilinx

Question

I have some VHDL code I'm writing for a class. However, the synthesis tool identifies cell3, cell2, and cell1 as "dead" code and it won't synthesize it.

I really have no idea what's going on to cause cell 3,2,1 to be removed in synthesis; I've reviewed it some 5+ times and asked several different people and I can't find the "why".

Not looking for a solution, just a pointer to why.

library IEEE;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_1164.ALL;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_ARITH.ALL;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_UNSIGNED.ALL;



entity multiply is
    Port ( a : in  STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (3 downto 0);
           b : in  STD_LOGIC;
           clk : in  STD_LOGIC;
           rst : in  STD_LOGIC;

           p : out  STD_LOGIC);

end multiply;

architecture Behavioral of multiply is

    component cell_a port(
                s: in std_logic;
                c: in std_logic;
                a: in std_logic;
                b: in std_logic;
                clk: in std_logic;

                c_out: out std_logic;
                s_out: out std_logic);
    end component;

    signal c_s_0: std_logic;    --loopback wire for cell 0 from carry to sum
    signal c_s_1: std_logic;
    signal c_s_2: std_logic;
    signal c_s_3: std_logic;

    signal xfer1_0: std_logic;  --wire between 1 and 0
    signal xfer2_1: std_logic;  --"     2 and 1
    signal xfer3_2: std_logic;      --"     3 and 2


begin

    cell3: cell_a port map(
                                    clk => clk, 
                                    s => c_s_3 , c => '0',   a => a(3), b => b,
                                    c_out => c_s_3, s_out => xfer3_2
                                    );

    cell2: cell_a port map(
                                    clk => clk, 
                                    s => c_s_2 , c => xfer3_2, a => a(2), b => b, 
                                    c_out => c_s_2, s_out => xfer2_1
                                    );

    cell1: cell_a port map(
                                    clk => clk, 
                                    s => c_s_1, c => xfer2_1, a => a(1), b => b, 
                                    c_out => c_s_1, s_out => xfer1_0
                                    );

    cell0: cell_a port map(
                                    clk => clk, 
                                    s => c_s_0 , c => xfer1_0, a => a(0), b => b, 
                                    c_out => c_s_0, s_out => p
                                    );
    process(clk)
    begin
        if(clk'event and clk = '1') then
            if(rst = '1') then
            --reset logic here. Magic happens and the circuit goes to all 0
            end if;
        end if;
    end process;
end Behavioral;

Answer 1

All I can suggest without seeing the rest of the code is that your 'c' input to cell_a is unused, which causes all the outputs from cell3/2/1 to be unused (hence, dead code, since it produces no observable results).

cell0 instantiates because multiplier's 'p' output is observable.

Answer 2

It might be that cell1-3 are getting optimized out by the synthesis since the output of this block "p" is only 1 bit.

You don't need to fully evaluate all the logic to determine whether this bit should be a 0 or a 1.