LogiSim Manual

LogiSim is a simple logic simulator used to design logic circuits. This

document is to familiarize you with the basics of LogiSim that we will be
using throughout the semester to implement the course project.
Please download the LogiSim source from the following link:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/circuit/.
Below you will find the basic information that you will need in order to work
with LogiSim.

1 Inputs/outputs and gates

As shown on Figure 1, this is the main view of LogiSim. On the left we have
a menu of the needed components. In the top left corner we have the most
commonly used logic functions and gates. The green square is used to add
an input pin when we want to provide input to our circuit. Th green circle
is an output pin to which we connect our circuit’s output. Then we have the
not, and, or gates respectively.

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 Figure 1: LogiSim: Main view

As shown on Figure 2, our circuit is a simple not gate with a 1 bit input
and 1 bit output that are connected with simple wires. If the input is 0, the
output is naturally 1. The input is changed by choosing the hand icon on
the top left corner and then clicking on the input pin.

(a) An input value of 0, resulting in an (b) Using the hand icon to change the
output of value 1 input value

Figure 2: LogiSim: Gates

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 Our input to a gate may be an n-bi input, we can also choose the number
of different inputs we want to provide to a specific gate. We specify this in the
settings on the left in the data bits and number of inputs options respectively
as shown on Figure 3. The input is 4 bits and the and gate performs a bitwise
and operation of the two inputs and produces a 4 bit output.

Figure 3: LogiSim: Gates

2 Shifters
Shifters are the components used to shift a number either left or right. The
shifter can be found under the arithmetic folder in the menu on the left. A
shifter has two inputs one which is the input number to be shifted and the
other is a constant representing the distance of how far to shift the input.
The constant variable can be found under the wiring folder in the left menu.
If we want to shift a number, we click on the shifter and we choose from the
left settings menu the type of shift (Logical left, Logical right, Arithmetic

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Right, Rotate Left or Rotate Right).
As an example, if we are shifting a 3 bits number, naturally the number of
bits for the second constant input is 2 to represent the maximum shift value
which is 3 bits written as 11 in binary. So as shown on Figure 4, if we shift
the number 111 by 2 bits a logical left shift the result is 100.

Figure 4: LogiSim: Shifters

3 Splitters
A splitter is the component that splits an n- bit input/output into n separate
wires. So if we have a 4 bits input A with bits A3 A2 A1 A0, we can split
them to reuse each bit separately as shown on Figure 5 by using a splitter
that can be found under the wiring folder in the left menu.

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 Figure 5: LogiSim: Splitters

4 Tunnels
Tunnels are used to avoid the excessive use of wires in big circuits. Tunnels
are found under the wiring folder in the left menu. We can connect the
output of a certain circuit to a tunnel that we use later as an input to
another gate/function to avoid too many wires intersecting with each other
as shown on Figure 6.

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 Figure 6: LogiSim: Tunnels

5 Add a circuit feature

The add circuit feature is used to create a circuit within another circuit.
Assume we are trying to draw the XOR circuit as a separate circuit inside
our bigger circuit. We do it as follows:

1. Click on the green “+” on the top left labeled add circuit as shown on
Figure 7.

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 Figure 7: LogiSim: Add circuit 1

2. Choose a representative name for your circuit.

3. Draw the XOR internal circuit comprising of and, not, or gates as

demonstrated on Figure 8.

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 Figure 8: LogiSim: Add circuit 2

4. Go back to the main circuit by clicking “main” in the left menu as

shown on Figure 9.

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 Figure 9: LogiSim: Add circuit 3

5. Add your XOR circuit by clicking on it, drag and drop it as represented
on Figure 10 and 11 .

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Figure 10: LogiSim: Add circuit 4

Figure 11: LogiSim: Add circuit 5

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 6. Draw the rest of your circuit by making the required connections.

If you need further help with LogiSim, please refer to the official documen-
tation through this link:
http://www.cburch.com/logisim/docs.html

Best of luck :)

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