Most recent announcements
2.5.1 to 2.6.2

Logisim 2.6.2 adds Portuguese, fixes bugs

December 23, 2010

Logisim, a graphical design and simulation tool for logic circuits, is now at version 2.6.2. This new version fixes numerous bugs from the previous release, while also adding a complete translation into Brazilian Portuguese and a preliminary German translation of the documentation, as well as several minor enhancements.

Most enhancements revolve around preferences. Some preferences that were previously stored as options are now stored as application preferences, and the preferences window has been reorganized a bit to reflect this. Perhaps a bigger feature is that Logisim now attempts to remember your window state - such as tick rate, zoom factor, and window size - so that on startup it restores the appearance it had when you last exited. It also adds a new Open Recent submenu into the File menu, allowing access to the most recently edited projects without needing to find anything through the dialog box.

Another enhancement new to this feature is that Logisim can be configured to display the actual tick rate. This will often be much smaller than the actual tick rate, because Logisim will not perform a tick until it has completed propagation for the current tick. To show the actual tick rate, go to the Windows tab of the Preferences window.

Educational institutions around the world use Logisim as an aid to teaching about digital logic and computer architecture. As a Java application, Logisim can run on most major operating systems. Read more about Logisim at http://www.cburch.com/logisim/, and download it from SourceForge.net at http://sourceforge.net/projects/circuit/.

Logisim 2.6.1 adds German, enhances libraries

October 4, 2010

Logisim, a graphical design and simulation tool for logic circuits, is now at version 2.6.1. The biggest feature in this release is a new German translation composed by Uwe Zimmerman of Uppsala University. The release also repairs some minor bugs in the recently released 2.6.0.

Besides the German translation, the release includes several minor enhancements to the library components. In the Gates library, you can now associate a label with any gate added into the circuit. In the Arithmetic library, a new Bit Finder component has been added, and all existing components have been enhanced so that a tool tip will be displayed when the mouse hovers over an input or output. In the I/O library, several components provide more color configuration options.

Logisim 2.6.0 permits subcircuit customization

27 September 2010

Logisim, a graphical design and simulation tool for logic circuits, is now at version 2.6.0. The headline feature of this new version is the ability to customize how subcircuits are drawn when nested within another circuit. In previous versions, subcircuits would always be drawn as a rectangle with a gray notch at its north end. Users can continue to use this convenient default behavior, but they can alternatively select "Edit Circuit Appearance" and use a drawing interface so that the circuit is drawn in a different way. For example, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) could be customized so that it appears in its customary V shape.

While customizing subcircuits is by far the biggest feature in this new version, there are some other minor enhancements. Clicking a subcircuit using the poke tool will show a magnifying glass, which you can double-click to enter the state of that subcircuit. And subcircuits can now be rotated after they are placed into a circuit. The Arithmetic library includes a new Bit Adder component which computes the number of 1 bits in its inputs, and the Plexers components can have 5 select bits, allowing for example a 32:1 multiplexer.

[change log]

Logisim 2.5.1 introduces stats, improves gates

2 September 2010

Logisim, a graphical design and simulation tool for logic circuits, is now at version 2.5.1. This release addresses a few significant bugs from the dramatic changes in the 2.5.0 release earlier this week, and it adds a few less significant features. The biggest of the bugs involves how on some platforms Logisim saved (and loaded) projects involving non-ASCII characters. Another bug could occur when loading multiple libraries, at least one of which is a Logisim project itself.

Among the new features is the Project menu's new "Get Circuit Statistics" menu item, which displays a count of how many components are used within the circuit and within its hierarchy. This feature can also be accessed through the command line.

The Gates library receives further attention in this release. Gates can now have up to 32 inputs, and an option has been added so that they can be drawn larger than the default. Also, you can now control on which side the control line is drawn for controlled buffers and controlled inverters. Finally, this version improves how the basic logic gates are drawn in several minor ways; for example, rectangular OR gates are now drawn using the standard label of "greater-than-or-equal 1."

Finally, the integrated help system is now configured to support full-text search capabilities. Also, while not technically part of the download, the on-line documentation available through Logisim's Web page includes a navigation tree, analogous to the integrated help system.

[change log]