Logisim is free education tool for learning the working of digital circuits. Logisim lets you draw digital circuit and then test it in a simple way.
Logisim is based on Java and it comes with wide range of components which include Logic Gates, Memory, Flip Flops, Adders , Input/output, and many more to draw digital circuits. Furthermore, the components are completely customizable for their values, size, and inputs. What I liked is that using Logisim components, you can draw simple as well as complex circuits. You can also save your work as an image file.
I have tested the Logisim and it worked great for me. Below I have shown a simple AND Gate and OR Gate working together in a single circuit. Light green represents logic 1 and dark green represents logic 0.
Working with Logisim Software to learn circuits:
The Logisim software has a nice and clean interface with the menu options placed on the left in a neat way. You will not have any troubling in browsing the components as they are well structured in different categories, however there is no search option for the components. The buttons have their title displayed when you move your cursor over them, which is a great feature.
Also, the menu has basic components as shortcuts which you can use for drawing the circuit. On left you have another window opened when you select a component. You can use that window to edit the component’s parameters. The window will be unique for every component.
Below I have posted a screenshot of the window for AND Gate.
Still if you have problem, then the help section in menu option consists of nice tutorials which are of great help.
Features of Logisim:
- Easy user interface.
- Simulation can be easily done using the Poke function.
- Wide range of components, some of which are:
- Gates:
- All Basic Logic Gates.
- Parity Gates.
- Buffers.
- Plexers:
- Multiplexer.
- Coders.
- Bit Selector.
- Arithmetic:
- Adder.
- Subtractor.
- Divider.
- Shifter and many more.
- Input/Output.
- Gates:
- Writing Text Tool .
- Logisim requires no installation and no registration.
- Great tutorials in the help menu.
- Unlimited times Undo.
You can try another good free software: CircuitMod. It is a great free Java based software to simulate the circuits.
Conclusion:
Logisim is great education tool for learning digital circuits. It is easy to use, as the components can be selected and placed easily on the circuit space. Also, the components are enough to test any circuit from simple to fair complexity. But the combinational analysis feature did not work for me. Still, the Logisim is great software for simulating the digital circuits. Based on the ease of use and wide range of components you should try it out.
