VHDL Component Instantiantion Failure, Entity or Architecture wrong?

Question

I want to design a UART receiver/transmitter and by now I already developed the receiver vhdl file but when declare and instantiate the the receiver component on my Mainboard Design I get very much syntax errors in both files, mainboard and uart-receiver.

The following is the mainboard design. I use generics. Could the problem be here? I already tried different approaches like setting the generics with ":" or with "=>" in the instantiation but nothing worked. It is a vhdl design for an altera FPGA (Cyclone V), I'm using Quartus II Lite. I got the design from an Internet Site (https://www.nandland.com/vhdl/modules/module-uart-serial-port-rs232.html)

LIBRARY IEEE;
USE ieee.std_logic_1164.ALL;
USE ieee.numeric_std.ALL;
ENTITY mainboard is
PORT( CLOCK_50_B5B : IN STD_LOGIC;
 LEDG : OUT STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 downto 0);
 LEDR : OUT STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 downto 0);
 KEY : IN STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(4 downto 0);
 CPU_RESET_n : in STD_LOGIC;
 GPIO : INOUT STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(36 downto 0)
 );
END ENTITY;
ARCHITECTURE behavior of mainboard is
SIGNAL LED_7 : STD_LOGIC;
SIGNAL LED_6 : STD_LOGIC;
SIGNAL CLK100 : STD_LOGIC;
SIGNAL locked : STD_LOGIC;
SIGNAL SF_D_signal : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(3 downto 0);
SIGNAL Reset : STD_LOGIC;
SIGNAL RX_byte_sig : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 downto 0);
component uart_rx
generic (g_CLKS_PER_BIT : integer);
port (
 i_clk : in std_logic;
 i_rx_serial : in std_logic;
 o_rx_dv : out std_logic;
 o_rx_byte : out std_logic_vector(7 downto 0)
 );
 end component;
component Test1_Led
port ( clk_in : in STD_LOGIC;
 led_out : out STD_LOGIC);
end component;
component test
port ( refclk : in std_logic;
 rst : in std_logic;
 outclk_0 : out std_logic; -- outclk0.clk
 locked : out std_logic);
end component;
component lcd_control
port ( clk : in STD_LOGIC; 
 reset : in STD_LOGIC; 
 init : in STD_LOGIC;
 init_ok : out STD_LOGIC;
 row_select : in STD_LOGIC;
 Data_in : in STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(19 downto 0);
 SF_D : out STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(11 downto 8); 
 LCD_E : out STD_LOGIC; 
 LCD_RS : out STD_LOGIC; 
 LCD_RW : out STD_LOGIC; 
 SF_CE0 : out STD_LOGIC); 
end component;
constant c_CLKS_PER_BIT : integer := 54;
BEGIN
lcd1 : lcd_control
port map ( clk => CLOCK_50_B5B,
 reset => Reset,
 init => '1',
 init_ok => LEDG(0),
 row_select => '0',
 LCD_RS => GPIO(35),
 LCD_RW => GPIO(33),
 LCD_E => GPIO(31),
 SF_D(11 downto 8) => SF_D_signal(3 downto 0),
 SF_CE0 => GPIO(0),
 Data_in => "00010010001101000000");
led1 : Test1_Led
port map ( clk_in => CLOCK_50_B5B,
 led_out => LED_7);
 
led2 : Test1_Led
port map ( clk_in => CLK100,
 led_out => LED_6);
test_inst : test
port map ( refclk => CLOCK_50_B5B,
 rst => not KEY(0),
 outclk_0 => CLK100,
 locked => locked);
 
uart_rx_inst : UART_RX
generic map ( g_CLKS_PER_BIT => 54)
port map (i_Clk => CLOCK_50_B5B,
 i_RX_Serial => GPIO(1),
 o_RX_DV => LEDG(3),
 o_RX_Byte => RX_byte_sig);
 
 
Reset <= not CPU_RESET_n; 
 
LEDG(7) <= LED_7;
LEDG(6) <= LED_6;
LEDG(5) <= CPU_RESET_n;
LEDG(4) <= Reset;
LEDR(7) <= GPIO(1);
GPIO(19) <= SF_D_signal(0);
GPIO(21) <= SF_D_signal(1);
GPIO(23) <= SF_D_signal(2);
GPIO(25) <= SF_D_signal(3);
LEDR(3 downto 0) <= SF_D_signal(3 downto 0);
 
END ARCHITECTURE;

The Uart Design File (entity) is coded like this:

library ieee;
use ieee.std_logic_1164.ALL;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
entity UART_RX is
 generic (g_CLKS_PER_BIT : integer := 54);
 port ( i_Clk    : in std_logic;
 i_RX_Serial : in std_logic;
 o_RX_DV   : out std_logic;
 o_RX_Byte  : out std_logic_vector(7 downto 0));
end UART_RX;
... 

I got the following errors:

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at mainboard.vhd(96) near text "Â"; expecting >";", or "port", or "generic"

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at mainboard.vhd(97) near text "port"; >expecting "<="

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at mainboard.vhd(98) near text "Â"; expecting >"!", or "=>"

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at mainboard.vhd(99) near text "Â"; expecting >"!", or "=>"

Error (10437): VHDL Association List error at mainboard.vhd(98): positional >associations must be listed before named associations

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at mainboard.vhd(100) near text ";"; >expecting "<="

And in uart file:

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(5) near text "Â"; expecting >"entity", or "architecture", or "use", or "library", or "package", or >"configuration"

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(7) near text "Â"; expecting >"end", or "begin", or a declaration statement Error (10523): Ignored construct UART_RX at UART_RX.vhd(6) due to previous >errors

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(15) near text "Â"; expecting >"entity", or "architecture", or "use", or "library", or "package", or >"configuration"

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(18) near text "Â"; expecting >"begin", or a declaration statement

Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(20) near text "Â"; expecting >")", or "," Error (10500): VHDL syntax error at UART_RX.vhd(21) near text "Â"; expecting >"begin", or a declaration statement

Can you help me finding the mistake?

• Harry Svensson: Out of pure curiosity, did you code everything in one big swoop and hope for the best? Or did you make small changes, see if it worked, make some more small changes, see if it worked? And ignored the warnings?
• hendrik2k1: I tried it step by step, but the errors startet appearing in the end. I think that many of the errors are following-errors because of a mistake in entity declaration.

Answer 1

I found the problem. There were some characters inside the code which the editor and/or the Synthesis tool doesn't know. I was the A with circumflex above it. But the letter wasn't shown in the editor window at this line. Perhaps it was integrated there from a different source by copying something.

• Harry Svensson: "circumflex", today I've learned a new word. - Well it does explain the error messages.
• TonyM: @harrysvensson, ironically you have put one on your profile page: an a with a circumflex
• Harry Svensson: @TonyM Yeah I've seen the symbol before, just never knew what it was called. It's like a birds "bill", you've probably seen it before but... never knew it was called that.

Answer 2

First try to copy the code into a word file.Now copy the code from word file back into the Quartus text editor window.