Tool Reference - SmartSim.org.uk
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1. File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Oa i pe DTD aS or H DODD DI After you have inserted the Toggles insert a Reader touching the wire on the right SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help DA ki poA aSo fi DDDDDIY This will produce the complete circuit If you wish to simulate this circuit read the section on Simulating Hierarchy Page 18 39 Hierarchy is a powerful tool which allows a user to create complex circuits by creating their own sub circuit components which can then be used within other components One could for example create an adder component and reuse 1t many times Tagging Wires An interface tag 1s used to specify where a signal enters or leaves a custom component Each tag must have its own ID which is unique to that component Tagging is done with the tag tool 15 To use the tag tool first select 1t then click and drag to or from a wire This will present you with a properties dialogue Interface Tag Interface reference and label query Text Text to display Flow Type of pin From this component s view Input 3 Output Bidirectional Pin ID ID of the pin which this tagrepresents a connection to Each pin has its own unique ID a 0 m Cancel Apply You can enter in a label which is displayed inside the tag whether it is an input outpu2. PNG You will be asked 1f you want a solid white background or a transparent background You will be asked for the resolution of the image pixel density multiplier A higher number increases the quality of the image but this will increase the file size and memory usage of the Image PDF There are not options you will only be asked where to save SVG You will be asked 1f you want a solid white background or a transparent background Printing If you wish to change between using a landscape and portrait layout select File Page Setup To print the design select File Print The current view in the designer window will be printed SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 33 39 Built in Component Reference These are the basic primitive components which can be used to construct more advanced custom components and circuits If you require an inverted form of a component for example a NOT NAND NOR or XNOR use the Invert tool to invert the output pin of the relevant component below Buffer 1 Outputs the value of its input And D Outputs 1 only 1f all inputs are 1 The number of inputs can be changed by using the adjust tool on the component Or gt Outputs 1 only if at least one input is 1 The number of inputs can be changed by using the adjust tool on the component Xor gt Outputs 1 only if an odd number of inputs are 1 The number of inputs can be changed by using the adjust to
3. SmartSim Version 1 2 1 User Manual A Digital Logic Circuit Design and Simulation Package for Windows amp Linux PCs and the Raspberry Pi Ashley Newson 2012 SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 2 39 Table of Contents AVOUT TS DOCU ii iia 4 COP da 4 EE E E TIAE A O nn atest N nea Sooke leaks 4 A aura decanter aciute sous ie ater secon ten ceaaiunsubuserh te 4 A A 5 SS RE QUIN OIS eisen E E E A TO E 6 TANS eA UG eea E E N loa ta E O 7 Windows OS Pre COMPUSO ar is 7 Raspber et RAS D1 Ail a T ES 7 Linux based OS Pre compiled reinn E eee eee a mead 7 Stiina TA UMS OU dado 8 GENE ce A a O o ei st ae Na a la hea ete eae are cheat fe 9 B SS eaat at ae seat ed ad oat ahead gee eae eee ati E ech ct tiated doa T eaten ett dt 10 Designer Window Referenc is initial 10 General MPSS 1 TOOL REC is 11 Example Tolar tdo omy 13 Era ao 18 A A IN A A EN 25 Simulator Window RK CLE CICS id 25 Startno A tdt 25 TOOL RELE ia 26 Understand OS a 28 Interacuno wira Cr a 28 Sed o A II Waaendsiueatesen 28 A a A ES T ore eee er te oe 28 ESPO DEE ORS OE Ro ane te ge ance Meer A ST ence ee one 28 Ma A A uate ated seme A IN 29 NP A es macaw 31 o eb asesaiausioasnaded boadaweaasesines 31 Load ica 31 Sn a e A O asset PRO O o O AT cee a cen ice ace 31 EXpPortne and Pt AN eae 4 are aches di 32 EXPO P E A A eS LOR ta de MIE 32 SA o O O A EE 32 Built in Component Referen CEs a a ENN 33 PU ds 33 O asec insect ice ae ese oe
4. Any offending components will be highlighted in red Component has unsatisfied interfaces This is caused when a custom component has pins which do not map to interface tags SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 38 39 Check that your custom components have valid interface tagging and re customise the component You may need to replace each instance of the component in your circuit by deleting and reinserting them to use the corrected version Circuit Warnings Component has overlapping components This occurs when you have two components which have the same centre in a circuit s design The invalid custom component will be given in the error message The offending components will be highlighted in red delete them and replace with a single component Cannot link tagged wire in component This means there are more interface tags in a custom component s design than its instance within a component First check the customisation of your component and correct any errors If this still fails try replacing each instance of the component within the circuit Memory Chip Errors Memory chips require that your system has enough physical memory to store all their data If the memory requirements of your circuit are greater than the host system supports you may either need to redesign the circuit to be less demanding or run the circuit on a system with more memory Memory chips with 64 or more address wires are not supported T
5. User Manual Page 31 39 Projects Projects allow you to manage your components more easily Projects allow you to load all of your components in one go rather than opening them all individually A project 1s self contained and does not interfere with any other projects A new project can be created using File New Project Saving Saving a project requires that all the components of your circuit are saved and this further requires that there are no cyclic dependencies in your circuit design All these checks are performed when trying to save a project You can save a project using File Save Project Loading Loading a project requires that all component files are present and have not been moved You can load a project using File Open Project Sharing Projects If you wish to distribute a project you must also distribute all the components it uses It 1s easiest to do this by saving all the project files into the same directory and then archiving the directory to a file If you do not include all necessary components then other people will not be able to open the project SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 32 39 Exporting and Printing SmartSim can produce PNG PDF and SVG image files from a circuit design You can also print out your circuit design Exporting Select one of the File Export options You may be presented with a dialogue based on your choice You will then be asked where to save the file
6. Hierarchy Tutorial This tutorial will use the XOR created in the design tutorial It is assumed that the XOR has been developed as follows see earlier tutorial SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help QS k teyr maso B PDODDPI The first step is to add interface tags onto the wires using the tag tool gt Select the tag tool and click and drag from two dots left of the upper left wire to end of the wire You will be presented with a dialogue SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 21 39 Interface Tag Interface reference and label query Text Text to display Flow Type of pin From this component s view Input Output Bidirectional Pin ID ID of the pin which this tag represents a connection to Each pin has its own unique ID a 0 T Cancel Apply Change the text to A and ensure the other entries match the above dialogue and click Apply You should be left with SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help QS k pyy as po H DPDODDIID SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc w Edit Run Component Project Windows Oa i e y7 mamas eno DODDD gt I With the final right most wire drag outwards two dots right from the end of the wire This will automatically make 1t an output tag Label this tag as Q Leave the ID as 2 SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 22 39
7. Select 2 The select tool 1s used to select components wires and annotations It has no current function and is meant for future development Move The move tool will move a component wire or annotation Click and drag an object to move it Moving a component disconnects it from any wires Orientate The orientate tool can change the direction of a component or flip a component To change the direction of a component click on a component and drag up down left or right To flip a component simple click on it without dragging Changing a component s orientation direction or flip disconnects 1t from any wires SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 12 39 Delete Y The delete tool will delete a component wire annotation or tag Click on an object to delete it Adjust fr The adjust tool can alter various properties of objects Click on an object to change its properties When used on an annotation you can change its text and font size When used on a component the available options vary You can alter the number of pins on some components such as primitive logic gates Special components such as clocks will take their own specific properties Adjusting the number of pins on a component will disconnect it from any wires When used on a wire you can set the initial signal in the simulation When used on a tag you can change the label flow and ID of that tag Annotate Aa The annotat
8. SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Oa i e y7 aseo fi DODDIDI gt The tag definitions are complete Now the component must be customised Open the customiser dialogue through the menu bar using Component Customise Fill in the customiser dialogue as follows EES Name Custom XOR Description A custom 2 input XOR Box Label XOR 3 Pin Select 0 Maps to A Y Connection Required Pin labels can be text or a symbol 3 No Label O Text Text With Bar Clock Pin Label A Bounds define the visual size Right 40 a Down 30 5 Left 40 Up 30 Background Colour Close Next define the pin layout The currently selected pin 1s pin 0 Click on the radio button which says Text The pin label is by default set to the text of the tag it relates to you do not need to change this To specify the position and length of a pin click on where the end of the pin should be in the display area Set pin 0 A as shown SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 23 39 HEE Name Custom XOR 11 Description A custom 2 input XOR H Box Label XOR Pin Select 0 i Maps to A ii Connection Required Pin labels can be text or a symbol E No Label n orm O Text with Bar Clock iii Pin Label A Bounds define the visual size Right 40 m Down 30 m Left 40 m Up 30 7 Background Co
9. components first the contained rather than the containers If you try to load a component which requires a component which is not already open it will raise an error stating which component is required Usually this is not a necessary process as you can use projects to manage your components SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 25 39 Simulating Simulator Window Reference SmartSim Simulation Simulation View De ES 1 O A my try od t gt Pi PM Speed Hz pep Multi Step 50 gt 2 3 amp 9 6 T Menu bar View controls Mouse tools Shrink tool Simulation run pause controls Simulation speed controls Multi step size control 2 FL EA AAA Simulation area Starting a Simulation In order to simulate a design you must specify something called the Root Component The root SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 26 39 component is effectively the component within your project which you are simulating 1 e the highest level component You would prefer to simulate a whole processor rather than just one of its sub components To specify the root component bring up the window of the component you wish to make the root component and select via the menu bar Component Set as Root To start the simulation choose Run Run from the menu bar If you would prefer the simulation paused on start up select the menu item Run Start Paused first This will bring up the simulation window If there ar
10. dependency This is caused when a component contains itself It might not contain itself immediately it might for example contain itself through another component which it contains The error message will show a failed ancestry The last component listed was the component found to be invalid it will appear earlier in the list The list shows how it ends up containing itself through what components Resolve this error by checking your circuit for design faults A component must not contain itself Failed to load due to a missing sub component Your custom component depends on the specified component If the sub component is a custom component you must load it up first If the sub component mentioned is a built in component you may have an out of date version of SmartSim check for a new version of SmartSim or try using a custom component equivalent of the built in component
11. distributions but if you do not have one you must install one using you package manager or by other appropriate means The process of installing a tar archiver is not detailed in this manual Before being able to run the software you will need to install the software dependencies for the program by using your package manager or by other appropriate means The following packages and their dependencies need to be installed on your system e GTK 2 LibRsvg You may extract the tar file in any way you wish but for universal guidance only the command line based method 1s detailed 1 Place the smartsim tar gz archive in the directory you wish to install to SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 8 39 2 Open up a terminal and navigate to the installation directory You can use the command cd followed by the directory name to change directory Use the command Is to display the contents of a directory 3 Use the command tar xf smartsim tar gz To uninstall SmartSim simply delete the extracted smartsim folder Installing From Source This section assumes you are using a Unix or Unix like system capable of compiling and installing projects using Autotools This method is primarily intended for advanced users The source code for SmartSim can be acquired using Git with the command git clone https github com ashleynewson SmartSim Alternatively if you do not have git installed you can download the re
12. DDD You are now ready to begin designing SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 10 39 Designing Designer Window Reference SmartSim Project 1 Gated D latch xml File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help e 1 Sa E aS o gt 8 DODDDI 3 4 Gated D latch Clk Menu bar View controls Manipulation tools Miscellaneous tools Insert custom component Insert built in component Extra tools and components drop down menu So ee A A O Work area SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 11 39 General Tips To aid consistent layout in your circuit design you can show hide the grid by selecting View Show Grid from the menu bar To make your circuit easier to view with different window sizes you should create your circuit in the default centre of the work area which is shown with a cross hair when the grid is on This will reduce the need for scrolling especially when the circuit is viewed on differently sized screens Tool Reference To use any of the following tools simply click on the icon shown and perform the described actions Tooltips are provided for each tool Scroll D The scroll tool is used to move the user s view of the design Click and drag up down left or right in the work area to scroll the viewable area Zoom Q The zoom tool adjusts the display scale used to view the design Click and drag vertically to adjust the zoom drag up to zoom out drag down to zoom 1n
13. containing the software its resources and DLL dependencies In order to extract the contents of this zip file you will need a program capable of extracting zip archives Windows XP and later come packaged with support for zip folders by default so it 1s not necessary to install this software yourself The process of installing a zip extractor is not detailed in this manual Assuming you can use Windows zip archive manager 1 Open up smartsim zip just like you would as if it was a normal folder by double clicking on it 2 Select the sub folder smartsim and copy it using Ctrl C 3 Navigate to the location you wish to install SmartSim to and enter it 4 Paste the copied folder using Ctrl V You may uninstall SmartSim at any time by deleting the smartsim folder Raspberry Pi Raspbian All you should need to do to install SmartSim is run the commands apt get update and then apt get install smartsim as root in a terminal try sudo apt get update and sudo apt get install smartsim Linux based OS Pre compiled The installation file smartsim tar gz 1s an Gzip compressed tar archive containing the software and its resources You should download one appropriate for your system s architecture In order to extract the contents of this tar file you will need a program capable of extracting tar archives with support for gzip compression Tar archivers are usually packaged with Linux
14. e errors preventing a circuit from running check the Errors Warnings and Solutions section Tool Reference Scroll D The scroll tool is used to move the user s view of the running circuit Click and drag up down left or right in the work area to scroll the viewable area Zoom Q The zoom tool adjusts the display scale used to view the ruinning circuit Click and drag vertically to adjust the zoom drag up to zoom out drag down to zoom in Context The context tool behaves like the interact tool when used on an interactable component or like the explore tool when used on a custom component See interact and explore tools Interact Dh The interact tool can be used to change the state of an interactable component such as a toggle button in order to interface with the circuit at runtime Clicking on an interactable component changes its state Explore a The explore tool can be used to view the inside of a custom component at run time so that the sub components can be seen Click on a custom component to view its circuitry You can further click on any custom sub components Click on the background to return to the higher level container component SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 27 39 You can also use the shrink tool to return to the higher level See the shrink tool Watch The watch tool is used to mark wires to record on a logic timing diagram Click on a wire to add it to t
15. e tool will add an annotation with specified text and font size Click where you wish the top left hand corner of the annotation to be placed Wire The wire tool is used to lay wires in a circuit To begin adding a wire click on the desired starting point Continue drawing the wire by clicking on each point of the wire When you have finished drawing click on the last point drawn You may undo a point by clicking on the previous point Most circuit diagrams are conventionally drawn using horizontal and vertical lines but diagonal lines may be drawn if required Wires which are being drawn are displayed grey whereas drawn wires are black To cancel the wire curently being drawn without undoing each individual point either using the delete tool on the being drawn wire or click on the wire tool again with the tool already selected Bind The bind tool is both used to connect different wires together and to connect wires to component pins To bind click on the point where the items meet You can unbind by simply clicking on an existing binding Note Most binding operations are done automatically Automatic Binding but sometimes you might need to bind or unbind objects manually SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 13 39 Tag gt The tag tool creates and removes interface tags on wires Tags are used to define a circuit s interface signal names and types input output or bidirectional Click and drag from or to a wire t
16. ect then File New Component as described in the Getting Started section You may wish to zoom in by selecting the zoom tool and then clicking and dragging down in the work area SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 14 39 SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 fiew Edit Run Component SA Project Windows Help R y4eV lamaS o gt lan IDPDoODDDI gt Inserting Components Select the insert AND gate tool L_ and click in the work area to insert an AND gate The direction you approach the point with affects the rotation of the component You can disable this feature by disabling Edit Shadow Components You will need to place two AND gates down as follows SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows QSL k pey rasos B DIDDY Help LD9 S JJ gt If you make a mistake you can move components around with the move tool H change their direction with the orientate tool or delete them with the delete tool Uf See the Tool Reference section for details on how to use these Next you need to place down an OR gate gt Place it as follows SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 le View Edit Run Compone Oair teyr aSeor DRESD t Project Windows Help ee o eae op SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 15 39 Drawing Wires You have placed down all the components required to form the XOR but the
17. he timing diagram You will be asked the name of the wire which will be displayed in the timing diagram Shrink t The shrink tool can be used to return to the higher level container component when exploring using the explore tool Clicking on the button returns to the immediately higher level Run p The run tool is used to start and pause the simulation Clicking on the button will toggle running or paused Single Step E The single step tool is used to run for a single simulation step and then immediaely pause Clicking on the button will step once and pause even if previously running Multi Step el The multi step tool is used to run the simulation for a specified number of steps and then immediately pause Clicking on the button will perform the steps and then pause even if previously running The number of steps to perform 1s by default 50 although this can be changed in the timing dialog See the timing tool Maximum Speed Ei To toggle between running at the specified simulation speed and running as fast as your computer can handle click this button SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 28 39 Understanding Outputs When the simulation is running you will be presented with a live view of the signals passing through wires Different wire colours mean different things Colour Description Blue Wire which is set to binary 0 false Red Wire which is set to binary 1 true Green Wire wh
18. his current version of SmartSim does not support 264 addresses It is unlikely you should need this many addresses and even so 1t would require a very very large amount of memory Memory chips with X or more address wires are not supported on this host system This is a result of trying to have more address wires than your system can support You may be for example trying to use 32 or more address wires on a 32 bit system Try using a 64 bit system 1f possible Memory chips which store 264 or more bits are not supported This version of SmartSim cannot support this much memory inside a memory chip It is unlikely you should need this much memory The host system does not have enough free memory to emulate this memory chip of size X bytes Your computer does not have enough free memory to store the memory chip s data It may be running too many other programs at once or not have enough memory The host system does not support memory chips of size greater than X bytes Your computer does not support memory of this size SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 39 39 Simulation Errors Multiple Output Error This error is a result of either a design flaw or circuit user error where two components are outputting into the same wire at the same time The wire which has multiple signal sources will be highlighted in yellow in the simulation window Saving and Loading Errors You cannot save this circuit because it contains a cyclic
19. ich does not have a live input high impedance Z state This can also be as a result of a design fault whereby a wire does not have any input connections Yellow Wire which has a multiple input error Certain components such as Constants Toggles and Readers may display 0 1 or Z to represent their state Interacting with a Circuit To enter interact mode select the Interact tool tiny or the Context tool Cho Click on components to interact with them Not all components can be interacted with Changing the Simulation Speed You can toggle whether the current simulation is running either via the menu Simulation Run or by using the Run toggle button B To change the speed at which the simulation is running use the speed spin button labelled Speed Hzy This will allow you to set the number of simulation steps per second gt o P Speed Hz 50 0 2 bee multi Step 50 A higher value means a faster simulation Click on the Maximum Speed button ee to disable the delay and run as fast as your computer can handle Slowing the simulation of a circuit s operation can be useful for demonstrating or debugging a circuit design Stepping If you wish to progress through the simulation a step at a time you can step through using the Single Step MH and Multi Step HH tools Single stepping allows you to progress the simulation by a single simulation iteration whilst mul
20. ina eS sess Siler Bae soal tc vend E Selena een ea ietaua Pena N eae anaes 33 O natn aa E 33 ROME ec eed A A a 33 IVT ID sates Sent ntact A E EAE E A 34 A ta Geeta anti O E II O E 34 TOSS 6 ORO NE E EP O A T 34 A o O ene eee on terete eee ae 34 A O et ee oe tee 34 Positive Edge Triggered DF lt p tlOp ccsesacssniiasecaideslsasesasyoadevenecackannantdabdde Ai 35 Positrve hdce Trieeered 1 Bip stlop cit aia 35 MEMO a o oa 35 SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 3 39 Errors Warmngs and SO MIU ONS isnt iii ias 37 Prooram Stal UD EOS a DESIOM PROS iaa iia data 37 NAONET OT Roo 37 EEEa e O A E EE EENAA SP A EAS E 38 Memory C FID ET ONS oo cated Sates hes O E E A 38 Sulon AOS d il 39 Saving and Load EMOS aser 39 SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 4 39 About This Document Copyright SmartSim User Manual Copyright Ashley Newson 2012 See license below License NonCommercial ShareAlike 3 0 Unported License http smartsim org uk http creativecommons org licenses by nc sa 3 0 deed en_GB Website SmartSim website http smartsim org uk SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 5 39 Introduction SmartSim is a cross platform digital logic circuit designer and simulator It is designed to be used as a learning aid to digital logic SmartSim has a powerful hierarchy feature which 1s designed to enable the creation of complex circuits by allowing users to create their own components and reuse them many ti
21. installing SmartSim If this fails check 1f a later version is available If you have compiled SmartSim from source you may still need to install 1t using the make install strip command with superuser permissions Ensure that you have followed the installation instructions carefully try reinstalling SmartSim Design Errors Warning Could not associate all pins with interface tags This is caused when you don t have interface tags with unique consecutive IDs starting with 0 Check your interface tags using the tag tool You can find out which pins are mapping to what interface tags in the customiser dialogue by cycling through the pins Validation Errors Circuit failed cyclic dependency test This is caused when a circuit contains itself It does not need to contain itself immediately 1t might for example contain itself through another component which it contains The error message will show a failed ancestry The last component listed was the component found to be invalid it will appear earlier in the list The list shows how it ends up containing itself through what components Resolve this error by checking your circuit for design faults A component must not contain itself Component has pin errors This is caused when pins which require a connection do not have one Not all pins require connections There is one pin error per invalid component Check that necessary component pins are bound to wires
22. ion Repeat this as follows SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 iew Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Oa i e y7 mero PDODPYHLS Inverting Pins The wires are now connected to the components but some of the pins must be inverted To invert a pin select the invert tool and click on the end of the pin the end which is away from the component Do this to end up with SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 17 39 SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Da RPSOS aSo DDDYLS The actual XOR circuit is now complete The only thing which 1s needed for this to work in a simulation is some form of input and output You may wish to save your current component so that you can use it in the hierarchy tutorial Go to File Save As to bring up the save dialogue Save the component with a memorable file name such as xor example ssc in a folder of your choice Inputs and Outputs For the remainder of this tutorial we will not use hierarchy and instead just add on some Toggle Buttons and an output Reader Insert two Toggle Buttons amp so that their pins are just touching the wires on the left If you cannot see the insert Toggle Button tool your window may be too small to display it either resize the window or click on the drop down box to right of the tool bar SmartSim Project 1 xor example ssc
23. lour Close Do this for the other pins by cycling through the pin selector to get the following box design Close the customiser dialogue You now have a component which is ready to be inserted into another component You need to create the high level component which will use the custom XOR component you have created Create a new component with File New Component In the new component use the insert custom component tool it drop down and click Custom XOR Click in the work area to create an instance of your custom XOR SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help QA R pey pasos H DDODDIJI Finally create some Toggle Buttons and Reader and connect them up with wires to the XOR just as you did in the previous tutorial SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 24 39 SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help QA i peA moro H DDODDIDI If you wish to simulate this circuit take a look at the section on Simulating Before you can simulate the circuit must first be set as the root component using Component Set as Root This XOR should behave just as it did in the earlier tutorial but you can now reuse it more easily Loading a Hierarchical Design Without a Project In order to load a saved hierarchical design without the aid of a project you must load the lowest level
24. mes over This user manual corresponds to SmartSim version 1 2 1 and contains instructions on how to use this software and get creating logic circuits It also contains a reference of the components available for use within the software This user manual itself however is not meant as a learning resource for understanding digital logic Not all screenshots in this manual may be up to date as SmartSim is still under development but they should still be fit for purpose as a demonstration or an explanation SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 6 39 System Requirements Item Requirement Operating Systems Any of and Processor e Windows XP or later Architectures o x86 e Linux based o x86 o x86 64 o ARM Free Disk Space 25 MB including libraries Free Memory 25 MB Peripherals e Mouse touch screen or other pointing device e Keyboard e Monitor or other display e Optional printer Only the operating systems and processor architectures on which the software has been tested have been listed Free memory refers to additional memory on top of what is required by your specific operating system and other running programs Ultimately the amount of free memory required 1s dependant on how complex your design is and only a recommended amount is given SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 7 39 Installation Windows OS Pre compiled The installation file smartsim zip 1s a compressed zip file
25. o create or edit a tag details about using tags 1s given in the hierarchy section Click without dragging on a wire to remove its tag Invert The invert tool will invert the signal going into or out of a component s pin To toggle invert click on the end of a component pin Any pin input or output can be inverted on both built in and custom components alike For example this is how an AND gate is converted into a NAND gate by inverting the AND s output pin Insert Custom Component USER The insert custom component tool allows you to insert any custom component within the same project Select a custom component from the drop down list and click where you wish to insert it Dragging whilst placing the component will determine its direction Clicking on the button not the drop down list will select the last used custom component Insert Built in Component The insert built in component tools allow you to insert any built in component After selecting a component click where you wish to insert it Dragging whilst placing the component will determine its direction Example Tutorial The following tutorial will describe the process of creating a simple XOR circuit You may wish to look at the built in component reference for information on components used This tutorial will cover e Inserting components e Drawing wires e Inverting pins To begin creating a component start up the application and choose File New Proj
26. ol on the component SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 34 39 Multiplexer Do The multiplexer can be used to select an input shown on the left Tristate Buffer gt A tristate buffer is able to enable and disable its output to give the effect of connecting and disconnecting from the output wire This effect is controlled by the top perpendicular pin The actual output if enabled is controlled by the left pin The purpose of a tristate buffer is to control what part of a circuit is providing the signal on a wire or to create a bidirectional wire or bus Toggle gt The user can change the value a toggle outputs at circuit runtime by clicking on it It is used to input data into a circuit Reader L The reader simply displays the value from its input This is easier to read than just looking at the wire s colour Constant OF L1F a Constants are set at design time and cannot be changed whilst the simulation is running They constantly output the value they are set with and are used to fix a wire s state to 0 or 1 The value can be changed by using the adjust tool on the component SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 35 39 Positive Edge Triggered D Flip flop D Q DFF Ph Bl A flip flop stores a single binary value output as Q In a Positive Edge Triggered D Flip flop the stored binary value is set to D when the clock input changes from 0 to 1 The Q and NOT Q outputs may be left unconnec
27. otal number of words is set as 2 where n is the number of address pins Therefore the total number of bits in a memory block is 2 d where d is the number of data pins You can only emulate as much memory as your host system the computer running the software has free and supports Trying to use more memory than allowed will result in a circuit compilation error SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 36 39 Basic Seven Segment Display ar The basic seven segment display allows you to read of up to four binary values a time and display them as a hexadecimal number This also allows reading decimal and octal numbers When displayed side by side with other seven segment displays in simulation they will appear as if one component A decimal point can be added using the adjust tool SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 37 39 Errors Warnings and Solutions Program Start up Errors There was a fatal error trying to load the built in components This error is caused when the program cannot locate the built in component definition files If you used the Zip or Gzipped Tar archive installation method and there is not a resources folder in the same directory as the smartsim or smartsim exe executable this will cause the error If you are trying to run SmartSim outside of the installation directory this may also cause the error If you have compiled SmartSim using your Linux distribution s package manager re
28. pository as a zip archive at https github com ashleynewson SmartSim In a terminal enter the new SmartSim source directory containing a script called configure Type the command configure make to build SmartSim and make install strip to install SmartSim on your system If you wish to install SmartSim into a location other than usr local specify this to the configure script For example to install instead to usr use configure prefix usr If you 66 99 wish to instead create an installation which runs in the current working directory us the prefix SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 9 39 Getting Started To start SmartSim simply execute smartsim exe Windows or smartsim Linux located within the installed smartsim folder Upon start up you will be greeted with a window as shown SmartSim File View Edit QS keer aSo H DDDDIJ gt Welcome to SmartSim v1 2 1 To begin you must either create a new project via the menu bar using File New Project or instead open an existing project using File New Project When creating a new project or expanding an existing one you may either create a new component using File New Component or open existing components with File Open Component SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Es bee sia Se orl B iDDD
29. sition of pins Click where the end of the selected pin should be to define a pin s position SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 20 39 Pins can be selected using the spin button By default all pins require a wire connection however this can be overridden by unchecking Connection Required Various label types are available for individual pins The selected pin is displayed in the display area as blue rather than black Bounds specify the size of the box representation The Background colour button can be used to change the box fill colour You should first specify the name description and box label of the component Afterwards specify the bounds Define the pins last Once you have customised your component it may be inserted into another component When assigning IDs to interface tags and pins you should ideally have consecutively numbered pins next to each other in the box design Make sure you get the box design right the first time as changing the design after it has been integrated into another component can be very difficult and time consuming Inserting and Using a Custom Component Inserting a custom component is similar to inserting any other component You must select the component you wish to insert from the drop down by the insert custom component tool Jus Insert 1t by clicking in the design area Clicking on the insert custom component button not the drop down will select the last custom component used
30. t or bidirectional tag and also the pin ID When creating a new tag the lowest free ID is automatically assigned The appearance of tags is shown below where A and B are inputs and Result is an output SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 19 39 SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help QS R UOS aseo B DODDDID Customisation In order to use a custom component in a design the custom component must be customised Customisation 1s the process of describing how the component should appear when used in other components Customising requires that all interface tags are defined with unique IDs Customise a component using Component Customise from the menu bar This will show the customiser dialogue eones MAME untitled Component 1 o A e oooO ama midis Maps to A a oo o AA o poo O Text With Bar O O mah O nw p a o eninin ENNE Em m NENENG Left 0 Te eee Tre errr T 0 SIEIIPEEPEEEEEEIIEIEIEEEEEEIEIIIIIEEOEEE EEEN Background Colour Close The name of a component is used as an identifier for when it is used in other components The description is only used for the benefit of the user It does not affect the designing process The box label is the text which is displayed inside the box representation of the component The display shows the box representation of the component Additionally it is used to set the po
31. ted 1f not required Positive Edge Triggered T Flip flop A flip flop stores a single binary value output as Q In a T Flip flop if T is 1 then the stored binary value is toggled when the clock input changes from 0 to 1 The Q and NOT Q outputs may be left unconnected 1f not required Memory The memory component can store a large number of binary words The word to access is selected using the Address pins Ad as a binary number The word is accessed via the bidirectional Data pins D as a binary word Chip Select CS is used to enable the chip If Chip Select is 0 the chip will never read or write and will behave as 1f it wasn t connected at all If Read Enable RE is set to 1 the value of the word at the current address is output on the Data pins If Write Enable WE is set to 1 then the word at the current address can be written to by inputting the value on the Data pins storing the value in memory when the clock is at 1 Tristate buffers are required to control input and output with memory The number of Address and Data pins can be changed by using the adjust tool on the component You can also use the adjust tool to make it a ROM chip this will make the memory read only This will make the chip always output its data as long as Chip Select is 1 The memory component can optionally load and save its initial and final memory from and to files This can be configured by using the adjust tool on the component The t
32. ti stepping allows you to progress by a number of simulation iterations at a time where the amount is specified by the spin button labelled Multi Step Exploring Hierarchy You may have custom components in your root component and they themselves may also contain other custom components To view what is going on within these custom components enter explore mode by select the Explore tool HB or the Context tool Click on a custom component to explore inside it Click on the simulation area background to return to viewing the parent SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 29 39 component You may explore down any number of levels of hierarchy to reach a specific component instance and back up again Logic Timing Diagrams Note when setting up a circuit for recording in a timing diagram 1t is recommended to start the simulation paused using Run Start Paused in the designer window You may also wish to turn down the simulation speed or use stepping when running the simulation You can create logic timing diagrams from a running simulation In the simulation window select the Watch tool 49 and click on a wire you wish to record on the timing diagram You will be presented with a dialogue asking for the wire s signal label Watch Wire Record this wire in the timing diagram Label Display this text next to the graph Cancel Apply The label you enter will be show at the side of the wire s his
33. tory graph To view the diagram use the simulation window s menu option View Show Timing Diagram The timing diagram window 1s by default set to stay above all windows but you can disable this with the timing diagram window s View Always On Top SmartSim Timing Diagram File Recording View DS 0 lo 50111110 J1001111Ju50111 2001111J250111 l3001111 350111 Jao001111 aso 111 5001111 5501111J600111 l6so1 11700 Clock When you are ready to record after adding any more wires you can start the simulation running using the simulation window s Run tool This will produce graphs for each of the wires being recorded SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 30 39 SmartSim Timing Diagram File Recording View A bor lo s0111111J1001111 0501111 200111 2501111 3001111 3501111 aoo nni laso nn soot isso feoo eso 1 700 Clock neset Done If your timing diagram appears blank this may be because your simulation was already running and the graphs appear later than step 0 To clear the recording history and start recording at time 0 select Recording Reset You can scroll and zoom the graphs using the Scroll C and Zoom tools You can change the height order of the graphs by clicking and dragging with the Move tool You can remove a trace from a diagram losing its entire history by using the Delete tool f You can change the text of a label by using the Adjust tool 4 SmartSim v1 2 1
34. y still need linking up So next you must lay down the wires Select the wire tool Drawing a wire uses a connect the dots method Start by clicking on the first point of the wire then click on each subsequent point finishing a wire by clicking again on the last point specified If you make a mistake click on the previous point to undo the last point or click again on the wire tool to start over If you finalised a bad wire use the delete tool f on it When the wire drawing has finished it will turn from grey to black Click in the sequence shown 5 Click on a point to begin the wire Click on the next point of the wire Next point Click on the final point 990902 a Click again on the final point to finalise the wire Wires automatically join to pins when they are created An unconnected pin is shown in red whereas a connected pin is shown in black Create some more wires to get the following design SmartSim v1 2 1 User Manual Page 16 39 SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Oa i e D meo DODDDI Now place a wire with one of its ends touching the bottom left wire as shown SmartSim Project 1 Not saved Untitled Component 1 File View Edit Run Component Project Windows Help Oa i e D meo DODDIDI These wires will join and their connection 1s shown by placing a small black circle at the junct
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