Exploring High Level Circuits with DLSim 3

DLSim is a digital logic simulator developed by our men- tor Richard M. Salter. What distinguishes DLSim from other digital logic simulators is its robust plug-in system. Working with the DLSim plug-in system this summer presented us with an opportunity to explore progressively more complicated digital logic circuits in a virtual envi- ronment. We set out to implement a set of circuits that would test the capabilities and limits of the DLSim vir- tual logic simulating environment through the powerful abstraction tool provided by the plug-in system. Some of these circuits played a part in enhancing and testing the simplified MIPS processor, MicroMIPS, developed pri- marily by our mentor John Donaldson. Another was a user-programmable circuit designed for the implementa- tion of boolean functions. The versatility of the DLSim plug-in system allowed us a high degree of creativity with our circuit designs. Through hands-on experience with DLSim we were able to better understand larger scale computer organization.