Digital circuit simulator [updated]
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Does anybody know of a good, but cheap (preferably free) digital circuit simulator? I just read Code by Charles Petzold, and gained a hell of lot better insight into the nitty gritty details on how a CPU works. I've dabbled with basic digital electronics in a university class, but I haven't really dug into it. I figured it's time I do something about it. Bear in mind that I'm a happy novice in this area, so the application needs to be fairly simple. What I want basically, is to be able to throw in a couple of gates, power sources, connectors, lights/diodes and switches. Then I want to press a button labeled "Simulate", to see blinking lights, and what have you. It would be nice if the simulator has ICs such as adders, latches and flip-flops, but not necessary. Simple gates is enough to keep me happy for a while. :) [update]I found this, simple, but fun program: http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/circuits/howto.html[^] It's completly free, and fun to play with (for me at least)[/update] -- modified at 19:19 Thursday 6th April, 2006
Just dive in.. get a breadboard, some ICs, a decnet power supply, some resistors and LEDs and go to town :) Ahhh prototyping on a breadboard... brings a tear to my eye... Amazing how many software people have a low-level background in digital circuits :) Are we nothing more than a bunch of disillusioned hardware people ?
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Just dive in.. get a breadboard, some ICs, a decnet power supply, some resistors and LEDs and go to town :) Ahhh prototyping on a breadboard... brings a tear to my eye... Amazing how many software people have a low-level background in digital circuits :) Are we nothing more than a bunch of disillusioned hardware people ?
That is my next project. I thought I'd get up to speed with a simulator first, and see if it's as exciting a week from now. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll find boring. I am waiting for the USB driver/hardware learning kit I ordered the other week. I got a note in my inbox the other day, saying that it has been shipped. Should be here in a week or so, unless the customs wants to have their fun with it first. My dream is to hack something up, connect it to my computer, and the control the thing with a driver, written by myself. Not that I'd change the world or anything with it, but I think I would definately boost my geek status. :-D As soon as I've had my fun with the USB stuff, I will dive right into the world of PCI... :)
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Do you have something equivalent to Radio Shack? They have a great analog/digital learning kit. Go for the real stuff and get your hands dirty with IC's, wires, etc. http://www.radioshack.com/sm-electronics-learning-lab--pi-2102913.html[^] If not, I suppose I could send you one. :~ Marc Pensieve Functional Entanglement vs. Code Entanglement Static Classes Make For Rigid Architectures Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
That thing looks like the Mykit[^] I had as a kid. I have fond memories of building long wave radio receivers with it. Ah... I will never forget when my mom asked my why I put this looooong wire between two poles in the backyard. "I'm building a radio receiver mom!" :) If I find this digital circuit stuff as exciting as I think it is, the next step is to purchase "the real deal". I just don't want to spend a lot of money on stuff I'll throw away in 10 years from now, wondering why the hell I bought all that junk. :)
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Man, Pspice... Those were the days. H-Spice is where it's at though... if you have $1,000,000. He's looking for the digital design boards we used in school to build the low level gates that form switching theory, and, or, nor, nand. He'll also need some of the more advanced packages that you can wire up that perform basic functions for you. In our class we built a fully functioning calculator. It was pretty cool. - Rex
The enemy's gate is down. :cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog[^] now.
Hmm.. spice. big money. Sounds like something out of "Dune". :rolleyes:
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Just dive in.. get a breadboard, some ICs, a decnet power supply, some resistors and LEDs and go to town :) Ahhh prototyping on a breadboard... brings a tear to my eye... Amazing how many software people have a low-level background in digital circuits :) Are we nothing more than a bunch of disillusioned hardware people ?
Ray Cassick wrote:
Are we nothing more than a bunch of disillusioned hardware people ?
It was required where I went to school. All CS majors had to take a year of digital...
The enemy's gate is down. :cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog[^] now.
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Hmm.. spice. big money. Sounds like something out of "Dune". :rolleyes:
The money comes from the fact that you get a lot of IC templates to build with. Huge templates of logic to get you going building some pretty incredible stuff.
The enemy's gate is down. :cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog[^] now.
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The money comes from the fact that you get a lot of IC templates to build with. Huge templates of logic to get you going building some pretty incredible stuff.
The enemy's gate is down. :cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog[^] now.
Ah. It would seem to me that it's probably worth every cent. :)
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That is my next project. I thought I'd get up to speed with a simulator first, and see if it's as exciting a week from now. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll find boring. I am waiting for the USB driver/hardware learning kit I ordered the other week. I got a note in my inbox the other day, saying that it has been shipped. Should be here in a week or so, unless the customs wants to have their fun with it first. My dream is to hack something up, connect it to my computer, and the control the thing with a driver, written by myself. Not that I'd change the world or anything with it, but I think I would definately boost my geek status. :-D As soon as I've had my fun with the USB stuff, I will dive right into the world of PCI... :)
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
I will dive right into the world of PCI
Prepare to spend a hell of a lot of time with that one... PCI is a pig to get going :~
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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That is my next project. I thought I'd get up to speed with a simulator first, and see if it's as exciting a week from now. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll find boring. I am waiting for the USB driver/hardware learning kit I ordered the other week. I got a note in my inbox the other day, saying that it has been shipped. Should be here in a week or so, unless the customs wants to have their fun with it first. My dream is to hack something up, connect it to my computer, and the control the thing with a driver, written by myself. Not that I'd change the world or anything with it, but I think I would definately boost my geek status. :-D As soon as I've had my fun with the USB stuff, I will dive right into the world of PCI... :)
Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
That is my next project. I thought I'd get up to speed with a simulator first, and see if it's as exciting a week from now. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I'll find boring.
Simulators are boring - period! Play with the real thing. It's more fun, and why should kids be the only one with toys. After you get the hang of it, and you need to do some serious work, get the simulator.
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Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote:
I will dive right into the world of PCI
Prepare to spend a hell of a lot of time with that one... PCI is a pig to get going :~
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
What about PCIe?
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Does anybody know of a good, but cheap (preferably free) digital circuit simulator? I just read Code by Charles Petzold, and gained a hell of lot better insight into the nitty gritty details on how a CPU works. I've dabbled with basic digital electronics in a university class, but I haven't really dug into it. I figured it's time I do something about it. Bear in mind that I'm a happy novice in this area, so the application needs to be fairly simple. What I want basically, is to be able to throw in a couple of gates, power sources, connectors, lights/diodes and switches. Then I want to press a button labeled "Simulate", to see blinking lights, and what have you. It would be nice if the simulator has ICs such as adders, latches and flip-flops, but not necessary. Simple gates is enough to keep me happy for a while. :) [update]I found this, simple, but fun program: http://www.spsu.edu/cs/faculty/bbrown/circuits/howto.html[^] It's completly free, and fun to play with (for me at least)[/update] -- modified at 19:19 Thursday 6th April, 2006
We used some software for digital logic course for simulation and really rocked. You lucky I have great memory, just found the name in an email they sent me 1 year after downloading it, dated June last year :) Quartus II Web Edition software version 5.0 <-- this is free and nice to play with. http://www.altera.com[^]
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What about PCIe?
I haven't tried implementing PCIe in hardware, but I'm sure it wouldn't be any easier...
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
