These functions convert the arg argument to a 2's complement signed value with size bits. The function provided by the std_logic_arith library can't convert a std_logic_vector to an integer because it is impossible to determine if it represents an unsigned or signed value. Functions that do this are included in the std_logic_unsigned and std_logic_signed libraries.
function conv_signed(arg: integer, size: integer) return signed; function conv_signed(arg: unsigned, size: integer) return signed; function conv_signed(arg: signed, size: integer) return signed; function conv_signed(arg: std_ulogic, size: integer) return signed;
signal u1 : unsigned (3 downto 0); signal s1, s2, s3 : signed (3 downto 0); signal i1, i2 : integer; ... u1 <= "0101"; i1 <= 6; i2 <= -2; wait for 10 ns; s1 <= conv_signed(u1, 4); -- = "0101" = +5 s2 <= conv_signed(i1, 4); -- = "0110" = +6 s3 <= conv_signed(i2, 4); -- = "1110" = -2
https://www.cs.sfu.ca/~ggbaker/reference/std_logic/arith/conv_signed.html