Logisim-evolution Tutorials

Step-by-step tutorials for Logisim-evolution, from your first components to building a CPU and running it on real hardware. New to the simulator? Download Logisim-evolution first — it is free and open-source.

Start Here

• Getting Started: Your First Circuit — place gates, wire them up, and run your first simulation.
• Truth Table — view and edit the truth table of any circuit.
• Combinational Analysis — go from truth table to circuit automatically.
• ALU Tutorial — build an arithmetic logic unit with control signals.
• Multiplexer (MUX) Tutorial — select between inputs, and build your own 2-to-1 MUX.
• Decoder Tutorial — decode binary values and drive a 7-segment display.
• Counter Tutorial — count clock pulses with the Counter component.
• Subcircuits — package circuits as reusable blocks: create, restyle, and share.
• Troubleshooting — red/blue wires, clock not ticking, Java errors: quick fixes.

Lab Assignments

• Adders — half adder → full adder → 4-bit ripple-carry adder.
• Subtractors — half/full subtractor: difference and borrow.
• 7-Segment Display Decoder — BCD to 7-seg: gate-level, ROM table, multiplexing.
• Shift Registers — SISO/SIPO/PISO/PIPO from D flip-flops, plus LFSR.
• Sequence Detector — 101/1101 FSM: state diagram to D flip-flop circuit.
• Traffic Light Controller — the classic course project, start to finish.

Components

• Digital Clock Tutorial — Clock, Counter and Comparator wired into a working seconds/minutes/hours clock.
• Comparator Tutorial — compare two values and build a threshold alarm.
• ROM Tutorial — store data, fill the hex editor, and build a lookup table.
• Tunnels and Splitters: Clean Wiring — tame messy schematics with named tunnels and bus splitters.
• Flip-Flops: SR, D, JK and T — one bit of memory, four classic types, and common pitfalls.
• Registers — D flip-flops in a row: build a 4-bit register and an accumulator.
• Code Converters — BCD to Excess-3 and Binary to Gray, by hand or automatically.
• Priority Encoder — the mirror image of a decoder: highest active input wins.
• 7400 Series ICs — real-world TTL chips mapped to Logisim components.
• Parity Generator and Checker — error-detection circuits.

Projects

• Building a Simple CPU — datapath, ALU, registers and a control unit: a complete 8-bit CPU concept.
• MIPS Processor — the classic single-cycle MIPS datapath, mapped to real components.
• Vending Machine Controller — coins, change, and dispense logic as a finite state machine.
• Instruction Decoder — from opcode bits to CPU control signals.
• Digital Lock — a combination-lock finite state machine project.
• 4-bit Calculator — a complete small calculator project.

Going further

• From Simulation to Real Hardware — generate HDL and run your circuit on a real FPGA board.
• Chronogram & Timing Analysis — record waveforms, spot glitches, and debug timing.
• Export Verilog/VHDL — turn your schematic into synthesizable HDL with FPGA Commander.
• Tips and Keyboard Shortcuts — work faster on big schematics.